A summary of the results of the entire experiment for four years will be found in Table No. 4, in which the yield of grain and hay per acre is given for each plat for each year, together with the average yield per acre of plats of the same letter. The straw and root tops are not included in the summary. In 1868 beets were grown on the A and B plats, and Swedes turnips on all the others. This will account for the much smaller yield of the A and B plats in the first column of the table. The fertilizers applied do not appear to have had any influence on the crops. grown. The results, however, show that there is a gradual increase of fertility in the plats towards the east, or from H to A. and this is indicated by the yield of each year, notwithstanding the alternation of manured and unmanured plats in the series. EXPERIMENTS WITH SPECIAL FERTILIZERS. In 1869, forty-nine plats of one-hundredth of an acre each (exclusive of the strip separating the plats) were staked out in Field No. 6, and sowed to tur nips. (For details of this part of the experiment see Report of Secretary of State Board of Agiculture for 1870, pp. 93 to 101.) On the 25th of April, 1870, the plats were plowed, and the following day, after harrowing, oats were sown at the rate of three bushels per acre. (For the results of this part of the experiment see Report of Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture for 1870, pp. 37-43.) After the oats were harvested, the plats were plowed Sept. 4th, 1870, and on the 13th inst. they were harrowed and fitted for wheat. Sept. 17th Diehl wheat was sown with a Beckwith's roller drill, at the rate of 14 bushels per acre. The wires separating the plats, that had been removed while the ground was being fitted and sown, were replaced Oct. 4th, 1871. The wheat was harvested in the forenoon of July 5th and put in stooks, and it was finally threshed and and weighed on the 13th. The crop stood evenly upon the ground, and the straw was moderately short. The heads were well filled, and the grain was of fine quality. The part of the field under experiment had been in grass for several years previous to 1868, when it was planted to corn. In 1869, the first year of this series of experiments, the plats received a dressing of barnyard manure at the rate of twenty loads (of forty cubic feet each) per acre, and fertilizers at the rate of 300 lbs. per acre were applied (in the drill to turnips) as shown in Plan No. 1, of the experiment. It will be seen that each plat receiving a dressing of the artificial fertilizers has from three to four adjacent plats without fertilizers as a standard of comparison. In plan No. 2 of the experiment is given upon each plat the weight in pounds and decimals of a pound of heavy grain, light grain, total grain, weight of an accurately measured bushel of grain, and the weight of straw. The weight of each plat was taken before threshing, from which the weight of the wheat when thoroughly cleaned was deducted, and the difference was entered as straw on the record, although it of course included the chaff. The variation in the weight of a measured bushel from the different plats is worthy of notice. |
