188 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
In comparing the results of the experiments for 1898 with 
those for 1899, it will be noticed that in 1898 the increase in 
the percentages of protein in the crops which might be ascribed 
to an increase in the nitrogen in the fertilizer was much less 
noticeable, on the whole, and corresponded much less regularly 
with the increase in the quantities of nitrogen used than was 
the case in 1899. ‘This may be due in part to exceptionally 
heavy rains in July and August,* 1898, which seemed to cur- 
tail the yields and may also have modified the effects of nitro- 
gen on the protein of the crop. As suggested in a preceding 
paragraph, excessive rain during the growing season may cause 
considerable of the nitrogen in soluble materials, as nitrates, 
etc., to be washed away in drainage water, and by thus reduc- 
ing the amount of nitrogen available to the plants may modify 
the effect upon both the yield and the composition of the crop. 
EKXPERIMENTS WITH COW PEAS. 
From the diagram on page 172, which illustrates the method 
of dividing each of the plots in the experimental field into six 
equal sections one-fiftieth of an acre in size, and shows what 
crop is grown on each section, it will be seen that cow peas are 
grown on the two series of sections lettered C and D. ‘The 
kinds and amounts of fertilizer used on each plot are shown in 
the diagram on page 170. 
The Clay variety of cow peas are used in these experiments. 
The seed is obtained each year from Tennessee, because it has 
been found that in this climate cow peas do not mature suffici- 
ently to use the seed grown in the experiments of one year for 
planting the following year. On the two series of sections, 
C and D, the cow peas are planted in drills at the rate of about 
forty quarts per acre. Although the two series of sections are 
kept separate in growing the crops, the data from both are 
combined and the results of the experiments are given as if 
obtained from one series of sections, each one-twenty-fifth of an 
acre in size. | wn 
The results of the experiments for 1897, 1898, and 1899 are 
given in Tables 43 and 44 which follow. ‘The weights at 
harvest of the crops on the different sections are given per 
section and per acre in Table 43; but the figures for the 1897 

* See Meteorological observations on Pp. 245 of the Report for 1898. 
