New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 599 

 Ingredients Applied in Fertilizer and Eemoved by Tubers. 



Of course much larger crops of potatoes are sometimes raised, 

 but it would seldom be the case that the increase of crop over 

 what the soil would produce with no fertilizer would exceed 200 

 bushels. In fact that is probably more nearly an average total 

 crop, and when we take into consideration what the soil itself 

 will furnish of plant food, it becomes a serious question, even if 

 considered wholly from the theoretical standpoint, without the 

 aid of experimental evidence, whether the constant addition to 

 the soil of such an excess of the valuable manurial ingredients is 

 profitable. It is certainly of the highest importance that farm- 

 ers shall learn the truth in regard to this matter. 



EXPERIMENTS ON LONG ISLAND. 



The Experiments now in Progress. 



The ultimate effect of any system of fertilizing the soil cannot 

 be ascertained without a long and continuous series of observa- 

 tions on the same piece of land. It is entirely possible that while 

 the application of a ton of fertilizer per acre would not be war- 

 ranted by the returns from a single crop, the larger returns 

 throughout an entire rotation might justify it. In view of these 

 facts, the present series of fertilizer experiments has been 

 planned with reference to their continuance for a period of years 

 sufficiently extended to form the basis of safe conclusions. The 

 possible large errors in plat experimentation are clearly recog- 

 nized, but it is believed that with the precautions which are 

 taken to minimize these errors they certainly cannot obscure any 

 important effect of a particular system of manuring the land. 



