Studies in soil cultivation. V. Rotary cultivation

Experiments extending over the four years, 1926–9 inclusive, have been carried out on a heavy and stony loam soil to compare rotary cultivation with normal methods for the production of a seed-bed. The work has been confined to spring-sown crops—swedes and barley—and to spring cultivations.

Rotary cultivation gives earlier and better germination of seed, followed by better early growth.

In every experiment, however, the final yield has either been no better, or else significantly below that obtained from the plots cultivated in the usual way. The barley crop gives equally good yields under the various soil cultivation treatments; although there is better germination under rotary cultivation, the plants on the remaining plots, having greater root range, throw out more tillers and thus level up the yield. The swede crop did not do so well under rotary cultivation, in spite of better early growth. In the 1926 experiments this was due to an extensive hardening or “capping” of the soil on the rotary cultivation plots but, although this effect was absent in the 1928 experiments, a reduced yield was still obtained.