Uniformity trial of potatoes — kalamkar.potato.uniformity • agridat

Uniformity trial of potatoes at Saskatchewan, Canada, 1929.

Usage

data("kalamkar.potato.uniformity")

Format

A data frame with 576 observations on the following 3 variables.

row: row
col: column
yield: yield, pounds per plot

Details

The data is for potato yields in 96 rows, each 132 feet long, with 3 feet between rows.

Each row was harvested as six plots, each 22 feet long. Each hill had one seed piece. Hills were spaced 2 feet apart in each row.

Field width: 6 plots * 22 feet = 132 feet

Field length: 96 rows * 3 feet = 288 feet

Units of yield are not given. In this experiment, there were 22 plants per plot. Today potato plants yield 3-5 pounds. If we assume this experiment had a yield of about 2 pound per plant, that would be 22 pounds per plot, which is similar to the data values. Also, Kirk 1929 mentions "200 bushels per acre", and 22 pounds per plot x (43560/66) divided by (60 pounds per bushel) = 242, so this seems reasonable. Also the `kirk.potato` data by the same author was recorded in pounds per plot.

Source

Kalamkar, R.J. (1932). Experimental Error and the Field-Plot Technique with Potatoes. The Journal of Agricultural Science, 22, 373-385. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021859600053697

References

Kirk, L. E. (1929) Field plot technique with potatoes with special reference to the Latin square. Scientific Agriculture, 9, 719. https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.4141/sa-1929-0067 https://doi.org/10.4141/sa-1929-0067 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Revue_Agronomique_Canadien/-gMkAQAAMAAJ

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{

library(agridat)
data(kalamkar.potato.uniformity)
dat <- kalamkar.potato.uniformity

# Similar to figure 1 of Kalamkar
libs(desplot)
desplot(dat, yield~col*row,
        flip=TRUE, tick=TRUE, aspect=288/132, # true aspect
        main="kalamkar.potato.uniformity")
  
} # }