REPORT OF MR. THOMAS A. SHARPE 525 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



Potatoes. — Tests with Fertilizers. 



Experiment was also made to test the value of nitrate of soda and superphosphate 

 of lime applied to potatoes. 



The land chosen was some of the oldest on the farm and may be considered fairly 

 uniform in character and condition. It was in clover last year and the clover sod was 

 ploughed under for the potato crop. 



The results show, as do most experiments of similar nature, that where a clover 

 stubble is turned under in a short rotation, nitrogen in plenty, for the crop is already 

 in the land. There were no rotten potatoes in any of the plots. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH INDIAN CORN. 



Thirty-three varieties of corn were planted in the test this year. 



All were sown May 20 and 21. The land was clover sod, well harrowed and pre- 

 pared and was in fine condition, but the weather in the last of May and all of June 

 was cold and wet and the germination of the seed was delayed in consequence, and the 

 growth was very slow until the middle of July. During the last half of July, all of 

 August, September and most of October the weather was dry, bright and warm, and the 

 corn made a fair growth, but the unfavourable weather in the beginning of the season 

 put the growth back and it never recovered lost ground. Very few varieties made 

 good ears of corn. All the varieties were tested both in hills and drills, the drills were 

 three feet apart and the stalks thinned to about six inches in the drill. The hills 

 were three feet apart each way and not more than three plants to a hill. 



The yield has been calculated from two rows each, sixty-six feet long. 



