CHEMICAL CORN-GROWING. 85 



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excess of nutriment over what is sufficient nutriment. Hence, 

 if our seed be planted at too great distance, or too few stalks 

 in the hill, no matter what the manuring, the yield may be 

 inferior to the capacity of the soil. Suppose our plants are of 

 a one-ear-to-a-stalk variety, and are planted three feet apart, 

 and three stalks in a hill, and that each stalk bears its one ear, 

 or the whole acre 14,520 ears of corn, no matter what manure 

 we apply ; then, if these 14,520 ears are small ones, our yield 

 will be forty-eight bushels to the acre. Suppose, now, we 

 have manured so that each of these ears is of medium size, 

 then our croj) is eighty-one bushels. If we manure suffi- 

 ciently, so that each of these ears is of large size, then our 

 crop is 114 bushels per acre ; and we may pile on our manure 

 after this point is reached without increasing the yield. If 

 but two stalks had been planted to a hill, instead of three, 

 our results would have differed by about one-third, and if the 

 number of stalks in the hill hud been doubled, our indicated 

 crop is doubled. 



We have now seen that, working backward, the yield of a 

 given area is determined in part by the variety of seed, in 

 part by the conditions of planting, in part by the condition of 

 the land before the fertilizer is applied, in part by the fer- 

 tilizer, in part by the chemical relations between the soil and 

 fertilizer. Under this condition of things a prophecy of yield 

 predicated on but one of these elements, must, even if, in 

 some cases, by chance correct, in the majority of instances 

 be futile, especially if yields larger than ordinary are antici- 

 pated. 



Peculiarities of condition have, however, led Prof. Stock- 

 bridge into broad enunciations of practical formulae for practical 

 men, and in claiming that the fertility removed by a crop, being 

 applied for a crop, will produce the crop, he has perhaps struck 

 the key-note to as much practical truth as he could crystallize 

 into one sentence, where limitations must be overlooked, as 

 tending to weaken the effect upon those to whom he talks. 



It is part of ray plan to furnish the details of an experiment 

 carried out in the growth of corn upon fertilizer, applied in 

 the manner and in the quantity recommended by the professor. 

 Although confining my remarks to the details, and the lessons 

 derived from this field, it may be well to mention that we 



