466 Report of the Horticulturist of the 



inches to the nearest seeds in the adjoining rows. The soil was 

 then watered to compact it around the seeds. 



A few of the plants damped off or were excluded from the 

 experiment from some other disqualifying cause. All others 

 formed marketable heads with the exception of one plant on Soil 3 

 which did not form a good head. The averages of the records 

 which are given in Table IV, page 476, show that there was no 

 marked difference in the lettuce on the different soils, but it was 

 very slightly earlier on Soil 2. It has already been stated that 

 the nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash which these soils con- 

 tained in every case far exceeded the amount taken up by an 

 ordinary crop of lettuce. Even in Soil 3 which stood lowest in 

 the analyses there were found about 26 times as much nitrogen, 

 7 times as much potash and 61 times as much phosphoric acid as 

 are found in head lettuce, and an important part of these con- 

 stitutents was supplied in the humus of the rotted sod and in the 

 stable manure. It is safe to assume that Soils 1, 2 and 3 were 

 practically on the same footing so far as the character and needed 

 amount of these food materials are concerned, and are, therefore, 

 comparable as to the influence on the crop of loosening the texture 

 of the soil by adding sand. In this test the loosening of the 

 texture of the soil by increasing the proportion of sand from 26 

 per cent in Soil 1 to 52 per cent in Soil 3 had no marked influence 

 on the growth of the lettuce. 



CROF II. FALL AND WINTER 1896-7. 



Crop II was started in the fall of 1896 for the purpose of ob- 

 serving the effect on lettuce of including in the soil still greater 

 proportions of sand than were used with Soils 1, 2 and 3. The 

 lettuce in Crop I matured very slightly earlier on Soil 2 than it 

 did on either Soil 1 or Soil 3, so a mixture having approximately 

 the same proportions of loam, manure and sand as Soil 2 was pre- 

 pared for Crop II and called Soil 4. Soil 5 was given twice as 

 much sand as Soil 4, and Soil 6 was made entirely of sand and 



