REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 



Seventeen samples from different parts of the eastern provinces, presuming the 

 fertile soil to have a depth of nine inches have averaged as follows : Nitrogen 6,247 

 lbs. per acre, phosphoric acid 3,596 lbs., and potash 6,510 lbs. Thirteen samples 

 from different parts of the North-west plains, have also been submitted to analysis. 

 These soils are deeper and may safely bo estimated at twelve inches, and on this 

 basis they show an average in nitrogen of 10,115 lbs. per acre, phosphoric acid 

 5,040 lbs., and potash 10,500 lbs. 



When any of these important constituents are present in the soil in unusually 

 large proportion, plants will sometimes, under such circumstances, take up such 

 material in larger quantity than where the same crop is grown on poorer land. The 

 proportions, however, which are taken from the soil are on the whole fairly uniform 

 and for some of the more important crops may be approximately stated as below. As 

 far as the material has been available, the figures in the following estimates have been 

 compiled from the analyses made by the chemist of the experimental farms, sup- 

 plemented by information from the " Compilation of Analyses of American Feeding 

 Stuffs," issued by the United States Department of Agiiculture, 1892. The propor- 

 tions of phosphoric acid and potash have been calculated from analyses conducted by 

 Dr. Goessmann, published in the 10th annual I'eport of the State Agricultural Experi- 

 mental Station, Amherst, Mass., 1892, and from Wolff's tables as given in " How 

 Crops Grow," hy Johnson. 



