New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 



465 



in Soil 1, and it decreased in the other soils in proportion as the 

 amount of sand was increased, but, as will be shown later, it is 

 safe to assume that the soils were on equal footing so far as a 

 sufficient supply of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash is con- 

 cerned, because even Soil 3 had a supply far exceeding the require- 

 ments of the crop. 



The plats in which these soil mixtures were tested were arranged 

 on the south middle-bench and south side-bench of the lettuce 

 house as shown in the diagram. Each plat in the side-bench con- 

 tained 20 plants. The plats in the middle-bench each contained 32 

 plants. There were no pipes under the middle-bench, but the side- 



South Middle-Bench. 



Plat 



13 



14 



15 



16 



17 



18 



Walk. 



Plat 12 11 



10 



8 7 6 5 



South Side-Bench. 



bench had two coils of 3^-inch hot-water pipes underneath. A 

 thin layer of sphagnum was spread over the perforated tile bottom 

 to help retain the moisture and the benches were filled with 5| 

 inches of soil. In order to prevent any modifications of the re- 

 sults of the test which might arise from checking the growth un- 

 equally in transplanting, the seeds were planted where the plants 

 were to stand till they reached marketable condition. Selected 

 seeds of Salamander lettuce from Peter Henderson & Co., New 

 York, each weighing 1.5 milligrams were planted f of an inch 

 deep and 8 inches apart in the row, in rows 8 inches apart, each 

 seed being planted opposite the middle of the space between the 

 seeds in the adjacent rows. This gave a distance of almost 9 

 30 



