Field Experiments avith Fertilizeks. 



323 



Experiments by Mr. H. H. Jones, Homer, N. Y. — Mr. Jones 

 who made the experiments and sent in this completed report states 

 that each plat was ^ rod wide and 10 rods long, making an area of 

 ■2^ of an acre. Three rows of potatoes were grown on each plat. 

 In harvesting the crop, the outside rows being discarded according 

 to the directions, the yield of the middle row only of each plat was 

 weighed. This row represented -^^ of an acre. The weight of 

 potatoes harvested from the central row of plat K (muriate of pot- 

 ash) was 267 lbs. This yield on -^^ of an acre multiplied by 60 gives 

 the yield of pounds per acre, which was 16,020 lbs. ; this is equiva- 

 lent to 267 bushels per acre. It so happens that in this experiment 

 the weight per plat multiplied by 60 gives the yield in pounds per 

 acre and that this product divided by 60 gives the number of bush- 

 els per acre. Therefore the number of pounds per plat represents 

 the number of bushels per acre. 



Plat (KN) 



Potash 



Nitrogen. 



Plat (KP) 



Potash 

 Phos. Acid. 



Plat (NP) 



Nitrogen 



Phos. Acid. 



Plat (NPK) 

 Nitrogen 

 Phos. Acid Potash. 



Plat (S) 



Stable 



Manure. 



60. — Mr. Jones harvesting and weighing tite experimeidal plats of potatoes. 



What lessons can he drawn frorn this set of experiments f We 

 will first consider whether it was a profitable investment to use 

 nitrate of soda. (See page 322.) The blank plat gave 211 lbs. of 

 potatoes ; the nitrate of soda plat yielded only 209 lbs. ; this would 

 indicate that when used alone the nitrate of soda was injurious rather 

 than beneficial. Muriate of potash used alone gave 267 lbs. per 

 plat, an increase of 56 lbs. over no fertilizers, or 56 bushels to the 



