398 ANNUAL KECOKD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



FIELD EXPERIMENTS WITH VARIOUS FERTILIZERS AT THE 



BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 



The "Trials of Various Fertilizers upon the Plain Field of 

 the Bussey Institution " of Harvard University, by Professor 

 F. H. Storer, are much more elaborate, accurate, and useful 

 than any other field experiments ever attempted in this coun- 

 try, and will, if continued, excel in these respects all Euro- 

 pean ones except those of Lawes and Gilbert at Rotham- 

 stead, in England. 



The motive of these experiments has been " to determine, 

 if possible, what kinds of fertilizers, among those ordinarily 

 obtainable in Boston, are best fitted to increase the yield of 

 crops grown upon a field that had been chosen as the typical 

 representative of the thin, light, 'leachy' soils which so fre- 

 quently overlie the gravelly drift in New England." The 

 plan has been to divide the field into plots, and to raise upon 

 them different crops with different kinds of manure, repeat- 

 ing the same crop on the same plot, with the same manure, 

 year after year. Three kinds of crops barley, beans, and 

 ruta-baga were grown. Yard and stable manure, muck, 

 fish-scraps, lime, bone-meal, superphosphates, salts of ammo- 

 nia, potash and soda, and other fertilizers were used, either 

 singly or in combination with each other. The experiments 

 were commenced in 1871, and reports for four years (1871-4) 

 are now issued. 



An idea of the magnitude of the work may be obtained 

 from the fact that some 285 experimental plots, each five 

 meters (= about one rod) square, have been cultivated, some 

 during the w T hole, and others for part of this time. The ex- 

 perimental crops suffered somewhat from the casualties to 

 which crops in general are exposed, such as heavy rain- 

 storms, depredations of animals, failure from bad seed, and 

 particularly from drought. The repetition of the experi- 

 ments through a series of years, however, served to make 

 up for the disturbances from these causes, so that the gen- 

 eral results are, on the whole, quite conclusive and reliable. 

 The conclusions apply, of course, to such soils as that of the 

 experimental field, and only in a more limited degree to 

 others. 



In one respect, however, these experiments have a very 



