90 BOARD OF AQRICULTCRE. 



and air lacking one of these materials. No soil has been found 

 entirely wanting an}' one of these materials, but so nearl}' deficient 

 in some one or more in an available form as to be practically value- 

 less in their native condition. But fertilization does not consist in 

 adding to a soil all of the materials found in a plant, for out of all 

 the conflict of opinion in regard to chemical fertilizations, there 

 stands out clearl}- this general agreement that the air and most soils 

 furnish all of the fourteen materials that enter into the growth of 

 plants in great abundance excepting potash, phosphoric acid, nitrogen 

 and possibly in some or man}' cases magnesia, but no attention is 

 given to the latter, perhaps unwisely. 



Chemical fertilization, then, means adding to the soil materials 

 containing potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen. Pressing the 

 matter a little closer we find that modern investigation has shown 

 that some soils mav be deficient in either potash or phosphoric acid, 

 but onl}' in them, and that either from the soil or air, or undoubtedly 

 both, some plants have the power to get their nitrogen supph' in 

 part or in whole. I am personall}' inclined to the belief that none 

 of our common field crops require heav}' or full formula doses of 

 nitrogen in our climate, although in England where three times the 

 water leaches down to a four foot drain that does here, such quanti- 

 ties are required for many field crops, notably wheat. 



Three or four years' use of nitrogen in varying amounts have thus 

 far shown nitrogen in amounts based upon its relative amount in 

 corn, potatoes, wheat, barley, and sorghum, when compared with 

 amount of phosphoric acid and potash, has not paid. For corn, 

 four proportions of nitrogen have been used with the following re- 

 sult for 1879 : 64 lbs. per acre, yield corn 45.8 bushels ; 48 lbs. 

 nitrogen per acre, 3ield corn 61.1 bushels ; 32 lbs. nitrogen applied 

 per acre, yield corn 64.6 bushels; 16 lbs. nitrogen per acre, jield 

 corn 69 bushels. Minerals alone, yield corn 67.4 bushels. Like 

 results have been secured this j'ear, although it is the third harvest 

 of corn after corn on the same plats and under like fertilizers. 

 Inasmuch as the nitrogen cost more than the minerals for our crops, 

 the point is one of the ver}- first moment in chemical fertilization. 

 Professor Atwater has found like results. In sets put out among our 

 farmers I am receiving like returns, although not so marked, per- 

 haps because not continued on the same ground. The same obser- 

 vation may in part apply to the experiments of Professor Atwater, 

 although some of his are continuous. 



