A study of the peat fenlands with particular reference to potato manuring

Abstract

The peat fenlands, including areas where much of the original peat has disappeared, cover about 350,000 acres. At the present time, the land is almost wholly in arable cultivation, the main crops being potatoes, wheat and sugar beet. Potatoes have been the most important crop for more than 50 years and on most farms provide the largest cash return and receive the heaviest manuring.The first part of the paper describes the soils of the peat fenlands, gives a simple method of classification, and shows how the different kinds of soil are related to the maturity and progressive wastage of the peat. The remainder of the paper gives the results of a series of thirty-eight manurial experiments on potatoes on the three main kinds of soil and relates the effects of fertilizers to the manurial requirements of this crop as determined by chemical analysis of the soils.

The effect of the time of application of nitrogen and potassium on the growth of the second early potato, variety Craig's Royal

“…At low levels of nitrogen Nm and D are similarly related in the two seasons; however, D is maximized when Nm is about 49 lb/acre in 1958 and about 58 lb/acre in 1966. Due to a later onset of growth and to an early attack of blight, the growing season of the maincrop King Edward was in fact shorter than that of the second early Craig's Royal; the data indicate that the ability of the crop to respond to nitrogen is determined by the length of its growing season, a finding in agreement with other workers (Dyson, 1964;Pizer et al, 1961;Ivins, 1963). It is interesting to note that Nm accounts equally well for D whether variation in Nm is brought about by either of the nutrients nitrogen and potassium or by their time of application, indicating that these factors are chiefly influencing yield through their effect on the nitrogen status of the crop.…”

Effects of potassium and magnesium fertilizers on yield and size distribution of potatoes

“…The generally small effects of increasing applied K above 70 kg K/ha on total yield (non-significant at ten sites, depression at two and increase at one site) confirm results on similar soils by Boyd & Dermott (1967), Henderson (1965), Pizer et al (1961), Simpson & Crooks (1961). Our results at sites where dung was applied (Tables 1 and 2) are in agreement with those of Reith & Inkson (1958).…”

Investigations into copper deficiency in crops in East Anglia

“…The. peat fenlands A paper by Pizer et al (1961) on the productivity of peats and responses by potatoes to NPK fertilizers, describes the peats of the fenland region and should be read in association with the present paper. No general information is available on the influence of height of water table on productivity of peats or on copper deficiency, but its importance was shown in Nicholson & Firth's (1953) drainage experiment.…”