Plan of a set of plats upon which the farmer may ask the soil and the plant 

 what fertilizers are needed (see p. 99) : 



1.. 



S plat. 



Size of plats 1-10 acre. Upon each plat the same crop is to be grown, care 

 being taken that the seed is pure and that each plat receives exactly the same 

 amount of seed. 



S, means stable manure; K, potash; N, nitrogen; P, phosphoric acid; O, no 

 fertilizer. 



The best arrangement is to have plats as narrow as they can be and still carry 

 a reasonable number of rows of the crop, and, unless the field is too large, extend- 

 ing from one side to the other, and across all unlike strips. Such an arrangement 

 would reduce the labor of planting and tillage to a minimum, besides securing 

 the probable advantage of greater evenness in results. 



A set of plats seventeen and one-half feet wide w^ould carry five rows of corn 

 or potatoes, with three and one-half feet between the rows; there would then be 

 three rows to harvest for the measurement of the crop, the two outside rows 

 being rejected. For cereals, as wheat, rye, barley and oats, plats as wide as 

 could be sown with the drill, with two or three vacant spaces between the plats, 

 would answer. For small fruits, plats carrying three rows should be taken, the 

 fruit of the inner row only being harvested for the measurement of the crop. 



93 



