66 THE CONNECTICUT AGRICULTUEAL 



gray. Cattle will not eat it, and it used to be hard to cut 

 it with scythes. This field is ditched once across which carries 

 the brook mainly by it; it was plowed in the autumn of 1881 

 for the first time, for the purpose of rotting out the June grass 

 stubble which I want to exterminate and eventually put in 

 Red Top or Fowl Meadow Grass. Wood ashes and barn-yard 

 manure are excellent to bring fertility, but they are scarce. I 

 would like to ascertain what ails this land. It appears to be defi- 

 cient in plant-food ; now what is a restorative? I will also state 

 that this meadow turf peeled up like so many sheepskins, when 

 plowed. I have used bone and muriate of potash, the latter 

 with great success for potatoes." 



In reply to Mr. Porter was written as follows : — 

 "Accompanying this you will find results of the analysis of the 

 sample of soil received from you. All the elements of plant-food 

 are present, and not one of them is deficient in quantity. Nitro- 

 gen, potash and magnesia are present in as large percentage as in 

 some of the best wheat soils of Illinois. Unfortunately the anal- 

 ysis of a soil gives little information respecting the state of avail- 

 ability of the substances found, and experience shows ^hat of the 

 substances present whicii are indispensable to plant-growth, the 

 one most abundant may be least available ! This analysis does not 

 indicate any one ingredient to whose abundance or deficiency the 

 low fertility of the soil is due, and gives, so far as I can see, no 

 clue to a course of treatment for improving it. It leaves us, in 

 fact, in the same state of uncertainty as we were before the anal- 

 ysis was made." 



With regard to sample 722 Mr. Bush wrote : — 

 " I forward to the Station, by express, a sample of our soil. I 

 say 'our' because we, of this neighborhood, have considerable 

 soil of about the same quality apparently, and an analysis of one 

 sample may benefit a good many persons. The sample is taken 

 as fairly as possible from different parts of a plot of about four 

 acres. I have no doubt you will say any fertilizer would be good 

 for it, but, if possible, I would like to know what fruits and vege- 

 tables it is best adapted to and what fertilizer is best adapted to 

 make them grow." 



To the inquiries of Mr. Bush, answer was made in similar terms 

 ^as follows: — 



" I give herewith tlie results of the analysis of your soil. I can 

 not find in these figures any satisfactory explanation of its pov- 



