MANURIAL EXPERIMENTS WITH STRAWBERRIES. 347 


MANURIAL EXPERIMENTS WITH STRAWBERRIES 
3 AND BUSH FRUITS. 
The second report of the Woburn Experimental Fruit Farm, 
reterred to above, contains an account of some manurial ex- 
periments with strawberries and bush fruits which have been 
carried out at the Farm. 
The experiments with strawberries have extended over 
three years only, and.are not yet complete. They have been 
carried out on six plots containing 288 plants each, which 
were planted in 1896, two feet being allowed between the 
plants in each direction. Two of the plots received respec- 
tively 12 tons and 30 tons per acre of London dung; 
another was given artificial manure equivalent to 12 tons 
of dung per acre, and of the remaining three, two received 
artificials equivalent to 30 tons of dung per acre, and the other 
was left unmanured as a control plot. The experiments 
were undertaken with the object of ascertaining the respective 
merits of natural and artificial dressings, and the effect of 
altering the amount applied. Theresults, so far, have shown 
on the average practically no increase from the dressings, the 
mean crop from the dressed plots during the three years having 
only been 5 per cent. in excess of that from the undressed plot: 
The plots with natural manure showed in two of the yeirs an 
excess over those with artificial manure, a result which would 
point to the conclusion that the natural manures have had some 
effect, though the plots which were dressed heavily yielded 
no excess in crop over those which were dressed lightly. 
With artidcial manures, the indications of the effect of increas- 
ing the amount were fairly balanced in opposite directions in 
different seasons, the mean results for the three years having 
shown a slight but insignificant balance in favour of the 
smaller dressing. The conclusion drawn from the results of 
the experiments is therefore limited to stating that the pro- 
bability is that natural dung increases the crop to a certain 
extent, whereas artificial manure does not, and that a 
moderate dressing of the former gives almost as good a 
result as a heavy one 
Similar Sencninents made with gooseberries, black, red. 
