Field Experiments with Fertilizers. 331 



better to use large applications rather than small ones in order to 

 make the results of the experiment more marked. 



AVith the cultivated fields of this State in their present condition, 

 with their present amounts of humus and with their present texture, 

 it will not pay, as a general thing, to use large applications of fer- 

 tilizers, because moderate amounts are usually sufficient to make the 

 available plant-food conditions as good or better than other essential 

 conditions of the soil. Just as soon as plant-food conditions are 

 better than other essential conditions the plant will not be able to 

 get the benetit of this extra food, and more or less may be wasted. 



63.— J/)'. Mdbte, of Spencer, N. Y., liarveaUhfj and weighing experimental 



plats of potatoes. 



Interest in the experimental work and its value. — In most 

 cases the farmers were very mucli interested and painstaking with 

 the work. Oftentimes the experimenters said that the work was 

 being watched by ueiglibors, for they wanted to " see whether there 

 is anything in it or not." 



Mr. Wills C. Hatch, of Skaneateles, N. Y., wrote as follows : 

 " Below you will find the results of my third experiment with fer- 

 tilizers on potatoes under your supervision. Each year's experi- 

 ments gave practically the same ;-esults, proving to me beyond doubt 

 what I had before believed, that the soil on my farm did not need 

 the addition of either potash or nitrogen, or, in otlier words, it 

 would not pay me to use them. I am now using plain phosphate 

 alone on all my crops and am getting better results than with the 

 mixed goods. This will save me from fifty to one hundred dollars 

 a year in the cost of purchased fertilizers, and with better results. 



