EXPERIMENTAL FARMING. ' H^ 



plots that did not receive potash. In this case it is evident that the 

 soil needed potash, and that the application of phosphoric acid and 

 nitrogen was useless. In other cases the results were equall}- con- 

 clusive in favor of phosphoric acid, while still others showed that 

 phosphoric acid and nitrogen combined were essential for the pro- 

 duction of a good crop. 



These experiments have been carried on through several years 

 now, and in the majority of cases have resulted in knowledge of 

 practical value to those making them. The reports of the experi- 

 ments can be found in the Reports of the Connecticut Board of 

 Agriculture, from 1877 onward, under the title, "Farm Experi- 

 ments." 



The practical results of experiments of this kind are well illus- 

 trated by the successful farming of Prof. Sanborn of the New 

 Hampshire Agricultural College, who, by a system of soil testing 

 similar to the one I have described, found that one of his fields 

 needed only potash to make it produce a good crop of corn. Dur- 

 ing the past season he planted nine or ten acres of this field to corn, 

 using only $4.00 worth of potash salts to the acre, and, with this 

 manure alone, produced a satisfactory crop of corn. 



On another field, with a soil of different character, the system of 

 soil testing showed that phosphoric acid alone was the thing needed 

 to make the field productive, and he is treating it accordingl}-. On 

 these soils money invested in other fertilizers was capital thrown away. 

 This instance of the successful uses of special manures for a special 

 purpose was reported to me b}' one of the most successful practical 

 farmers in the State, who visited the farm of Prof. Sanborn, saw 

 the crop growing, and from his own lips learned how the land had 

 been treated. Surely this is a case in which experimental farming 

 has paid the one undertaking it. 



It nuist be remembered, however, in connection with experiments 

 of this kind, that different crops have different capacities of obtain- 

 ing their food from the soil, and that a fertilizer which might supply 

 the deficiencies in the soil for one crop might not do it for another. 

 For instance, beans and all leguminous plants require larger quanti- 

 ties of nitrogen for their growth than do the cereals, but the^' have 

 so much greater power to gather their nitrogen from the soil that 

 good crops can often be produced on soils that are too poor in nitro- 

 gen to grow wheat. The reason for this we can no more explain 



