OCR Text |
Show WHEAT GROWN AFTER FALLOW Results of Experiments Conducted at Rothamsted Station Much Depends De-pends on Nitrates Remaining. At the Rothamsted experiment station sta-tion in England wheat has been grown continuously and also alternating with fallow for 58 years. The records of the station have the following to say regarding the work: "It will be seen that the production produc-tion of wheat after fallow is higher high-er than when it is grown continuously, 17.1 bushels against 12.7 bushels per acre; but if reckoned as production produc-tion over the whole area, half in crop and half fallow, the whole area grows much less of both grain and straw than where the crop is grown year after year on the same land. A given area of land would therefore be more productive when cropped every year than if the crop were alternated with fallow. The superior yield of the portion por-tion in crop after a fallowing may in some degree be attributed to the greater freedom from weeds, but in the main' it is due to the production of nitrates from the humus of the soil during the summer when it is fallow, a process which is much stimulated by the stirring it receives and the consequent con-sequent aeration. The success of a fallowing fal-lowing depends upon these nitrates remaining re-maining for the succeeding crop. They may be entirely washed to by heavy autumnal rain." |