Variability in terrace response was also affected by vegetation cover change over the cropping cycles, and by the differing effects of storms of slightly varying character and timing occurring on different plots. This made meaningful comparisons between terraces difficult. To overcome some of the difficulties, comparisons have been made on a seasonal basis. The most sensitive early season, before crops have produced a blanketing effect, in which it might be expected that the differences will be greatest between the terraces, has been analysed for 1993. The terraces fell into two clusters in terms of seasonal response. The first group comprised Bari 3 and Bari 10, in which erosional response was relatively insensitive to both runoff and the EI15 index. The sandy texture and relatively high infiltration rates of the soils on these terraces were probably responsible for the low rate of change of soil erosion with increasing runoff and rainfall intensity, as well as for the low levels of erosion relative to the other terraces during the larger rainfall events. As noted previously, aggregate stability of the soil on Bari 10 terraces was especially high. There were some differences in erosion losses between Bari 3 and Bari 10 terraces, which probably reflected the longer downslope distance and hence terrace storage on Bari 3, the unditched terrace.