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Earthworms are primary candidates for national soil health monitoring as they are ecosystem engineers that benefit both food production and ecosystem services associated with soil security. Supporting farmers to monitor soil health could help to achieve the policy aspiration of sustainable soils by 2030 in England; however, little is known about how to overcome participation barriers, appropriate methodologies (practical, cost-effective, usefulness) or training needs. This paper presents the results from a pilot #60minworms study which mobilised farmers to assess over >1300 ha farmland soils in spring 2018. The results interpretation framework is based on the presence of earthworms from each of the three ecological groups at each observation (20 x 20 cm x 20 cm pit) and spatially across a field (10 soil pits). Results showed that most fields have basic earthworm presence and abundance, but 42% fields may be over-worked as indicated by absence/rarity of epigeic and/or anecic earthworms. Tillage had a negative impact (p < 0.05) on earthworm populations and organic matter management did not mitigate tillage impacts. In terms of farmer participation, Twitter and Farmers Weekly magazine were highly effective channels for recruitment. Direct feedback from participants included excellent scores in trust, value and satisfaction of the protocol (e.g. 100% would do the test again) and 57% would use their worm survey results to change their soil management practices. A key training need in terms of earthworm identification skills was reported. The trade-off between data quality, participation rates and fieldwork costs suggests there is potential to streamline the protocol further to #30minworms (5 pits), incurring farmer fieldwork costs of approximately £1.48 ha-1. At national scales, £14 million pounds across 4.7 M ha-1 in fieldwork costs per survey could be saved by farmer participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes penetration of total solar, T, near infrared and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). PAR, measured by tube solarimeters at Rothamsted, England in five different crops, includes sugar beet, field beans, kale, and spring wheat. The measurements are used to obtain the sunfleck parameters in Monteith's theory. Crop transmission parameters calculated from the daily radiation totals changed little when crop cover was full.

Fast-growing tree clones selected for biomass plantations are highly productive and therefore likely to use more water than the agricultural crops they replace. We report field measurements of transpiration through the summer of 1994 from two poplar clones, Beaupré (Populus trichocarpa Torr. & A. Gray × P. deltoides Bartr. ex Marsh.) and Dorschkamp (P. deltoides × P. nigra L.), grown as unirrigated short-rotation coppice in southern England. Stand transpiration was quantified by scaling up from sap flow measurements made with the heat balance method in a sample of stems. Leaf conductances, leaf area development, meteorological variables and soil water deficit were also measured to investigate the response of the trees to the environment. High rates of transpiration were found for Beaupré. In June, when soil water was plentiful, the mean (± SD) transpiration rate over an 18-day period was 5.0 ± 1.8 mm day−1, reaching a maximum of 7.9 mm day−1. Transpiration rates from Dorschkamp were lower, as a result of its lower leaf area index. High total leaf conductances were measured for both Beaupré (0.34 ± 0.17 mol m−2 s−1) and Dorschkamp (0.39 ± 0.16 mol m−2 s−1). Leaf conductance declined slightly with increasing atmospheric vapor pressure deficit in both clones, but only in Beaupré did leaf conductance decrease as soil water deficit increased. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines yields per acreage in English agriculture during 1250-1860. Between the late medieval period and 1884, when the first complete national figures were collected, grain yields per acre in England increased by about 150 per cent. The period of greatest uncertainty about grain yields is from 1450 until 1800. After 1450 manorial sources become scarce, and it is only in the 1790s that samples of yield information began to be collected on a national basis. There is an almost complete lack of information on the yields of meadow land over this same period. Consumption of grain would of course be affected by real incomes, and so the figure also shows the wage of building workers in terms of grain. As the figure shows, if we choose our decades carefully we can get periodic comparisons of required grain output for periods where grain consumption per caput would be similar because wages in terms of grain were similar. The labour inputs to thresh a bushel of grain appear to have been constant over the period 1561 to 1850. This is a good test of the reliability of the piece rates used since threshing rates should be independent of fields, and the technique for hand threshing changed little over the whole period from 1250 to 1850. In contrast the number of man-days required to reap an acre of wheat rose considerably from 1561 to 1860.

Fossil records of Cannabiaceae pollen and Cannabis achenes from Flandrian deposits at three sites in eastern England are presented as further evidence for the past cultivation of this crop. It is suggested that retting of hemp to extract fibre was carried out at each of the sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollen originating from small populations of Tilia cordata is largely deposited within a few hundred metres of the trees, so that their presence can only be detected by pollen analysis at sites within distances of this order. Pollen diagrams from such sites show a continuous curve for Tilia pollen extending to the present surface, although the values may be only about 1% of arboreal pollen. Pollen analysis shows that T. cordata was present in the Lake District by about 5000 to 4800 B.C.; it then became plentiful in the southern valleys and extended to reach its present north-western limit, or just beyond, by 3100 B.C., when migration ceased. While the tree was extending its range, it must have been able to produce frequent large crops of fertile seed but subsequently regeneration from seed ceased. After 3100 B.C., the proportion of its pollen initially may increase but then generally decreases. Although there are small recoveries at several horizons, these are not certain evidence of reproduction by seed. Failure to produce fertile seed renders the species particularly sensitive to woodland clearance and has resulted in a decrease in abundance within the Lake District and its virtual extinction in west Yorkshire and south Lancashire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the nutrient budgets for a dry health ecosystem in the south of England. It describes some areas of Calluna heathland in the Poole basin of Dorset. It also gives an account of the estimates of the increased standing crop and accumulation of litter with age. It is said that the above ground standing crop increases to about 24 000 kg/ha and the accumulation of litter to about 17 000 kg/ha after 35 years. Results showing the accumulation of the major plant nutrients in the standing crop and litter are presented. The results are discussed in relation to the building, mature and degenerate phases of development of the vegetation.

The article focuses on the effects of different primary cultivation on several weeds at Wellesbourne in South Warwickshire, England. The aim of the experiment was to determine the effects of different yields of vegetable crops and on soil properties, in which the main comparison in the experiments was based on the three depths of working such as ploughing and rotary cultivation and the treatments with different methods of traction. The result shows that if the production of weed seeds takes place from time to time, and must be regarded as almost inevitable, then the build-up of high particular species is likely to occur rapidly, where rotary cultivation rather than ploughing to the same depth is employed for primary cultivation.

The article investigates the impact of six-years of vegetable cropping on the weed seed populations present in the soil subjected to three long experiments in Warwick, England, from 1953 to 1959. Specifically, it examines the impact of cropping, manurial treatment particularly farmyard manure and fallowing on total number of weed seeds. Experiments include the nitrogen experiment, the NPK (nitrogen, phosphate and potash) experiment and the cultivation experiment. Findings show that the total weed seed population declined during several years of cropping, except for Poa annua, Senecio vulgaris and Stellaria media. Analysis also reveals that application of various inorganic fertilizer treatments have little impact on the weed seed population.

The article presents a study on the effects of manurial and cultural treatments on soil properties and on vegetable crops, including Stellaria media, Poa annua and Chenopodium album. It states that in 1952, the Chemistry section at the National Vegetable Research Station planned three long-term field experiments for the study of the impacts of manurial and cultural treatments on soil properties and vegetable crops. These experiments are conducted in Soakwaters, which is a field of 36 acres in Warwick, England. Results showed that after the first year of vegetable cropping, it was found that the population of vegetable crops had been reduced to 38% of the original level. By the end of the second year of cropping, however, the population had fallen by 19% of that originally present.