1 Sepr., 1899. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 243 
EXPERIMENTAL PLOTS. 
We have already, in a former number of the Journal (Vol. IV., March 1899), 
explained the object of experiment farms, and we quoted Professor Paul Wagner, 
Ph.D., Director of the Government Agricultural Research Station at Darm- 
stadt, Germany, in support of the value of increasing the productiveness of — 
soils by the application of manures, after manurial experiments with certain 
crops had been carried out, and the results accurately recorded and tabulated. 
We now give the Professor’s methods of harvesting these experimental crops. 
The replies to the following questions are worth reading :— 
HOW SHOULD STRAW CROPS BE HARVESTED, AND HOW SHOULD THE 
HARVEST WEIGHT OF STRAW AND GRAIN BE DETERMINED? 
Straw crops should be cut with a scythe, but if the harvester is not 
sufficiently skilful to keep the boundaries well, a sickle should be used to cut 
the marginal rows. The cut crop is at once bound into sheaves, each sheaf 
immediately weighed, and as soon as the yield of any such single plot is duly 
recorded, an average sample of about 10 Ib. is taken from it, The sample ig 
placed in a clean sack, and a wooden label bearing the number of the plot is 
thrown in with it; the sack is then tied up tightly, another wooden label, with 
the number of the plot, is attached, and the sack put aside Gf possible, out of 
the sun) and covered with cloths or sacks, to prevent the sample losing any 
moisture by evaporation. 
When all the plots have been harvested, the various samples should be 
taken to a place where they can be accurately weighed, and for this purpose the 
contents of each sack are shaken out and weighed separately, the weight is 
noted and the contents returned to the sacks, which are then hung up to dry. 
After the samples have become air-dried, they are again turned out and 
weighed, and the weight of water lost is recorded, as well as the weight of air- 
dried substance remaining. 
Each sample is now transferred to a capacious linen sack, laid on the 
ground and threshed, and ultimately shaken out on to a metal tray, a yard or so 
in diameter ; the straw is gathered up, the residue sifted through a sieve varying 
in mesh from } to 3 of an inch, according to the size of the corn, The residue 
on the sieve is mixed with the straw; the siftings—that is, the corn and chaff— 
are accurately weighed ; a proceeding which is also applied to the straw. The 
chaff is subsequently winnowed from the corn, and is accurately weighed, and 
its weight deducted from the combined weight of the corn and chaff. 
In this manner is ascertained, with exactitude, the amount of dry substance, 
and the proportion of straw, corn, and chaff in the samples taken from the field ; 
and the yield of the plot in straw, corn, and chaff, in an air-dried condition, can 
be easily calculated from the total weight of the sheaves, and the data obtained 
in these various weighings. 
Tt is well to notice here how accurately and conveniently all these compu- 
tations can be carried out, and to compare with this the labour and trouble that 
would be entailed in harvesting the produce from larger areas of land, such as 
@ of an acre, and the inevitable loss by falling corn in the field and while 
carrying and manipulating larger quantities. It will thus readily be realised 
how great are the advantages of the method here described, 
HOW SHOULD POTATOES AND TURNIPS BE HARVESTED AND THEIR 
WEIGHTS DETERMINED? 
Potato and root harvests present no difficulties. The haulms of potato 
crops are not as a rule harvested, as the yield is not constant, and they also have 
no particular signification. The tubers are carefull dug up and spread over 
their particular plot to dry and to let the adhering mould fall off. They are then 
collected in a tared and ticketed sack and weighed. A 20-lb. sample is then 
selected from the combined produce of the three similarly manured plots and 
placed in a ticketed sack, to serve for the determination of the mould still 
adhering, the amount of dry substance, starch, &e. ; 
