1882.] EXPERIMENTS "WITH FERTILIZERS. 365 



Nothing could be more striking than the effect of the nitrogen 

 and the almost entire failure of the other materials to increase the 

 yield. As in the experiment of 1880, the corn ignores the super- 

 phosphate and potash salt almost entirely, but responds to nitrogen 

 in every form and rises and falls with the amount applied. Even 

 nitrate of soda alone at the rate of 450 pounds per acre, despite 

 the unfavorable season, raises the yield from 13 bushels with no 

 manure to 54 bushels per acre. 



I was surprised at the outcome of the experiment of 1880, and 

 wrote Mr. Newton as much, and expressed the wish that he would 

 try again. In his report of the second experiment he says face- 

 tiously but forcibly: " So you see Nitrogen is king of my hill." 



The very fact that Mr. Newton's experiment is such an excep- 

 tion, renders it all the more interesting and valuable. 



THE GENERAL OUTCOME OP THE EXPERIMENTS OF 1881. 



Taking into account the experiments as a whole, of which those 

 detailed above are samples, I do not see that I can alter in any 

 material way the conclusions given in previous reports, and which 

 I do not repeat here, for the simple reason that they have been 

 stated in this volume as it seems to me times enough. 



That season, seed, and tillage are extremely important factors 

 of plant-growth, are facts that everybody knows, no one fully un- 

 derstands, and too few recognize in their practice. 



That soils vary widely in their power of supplying food to 

 plants, and that oftentimes a soil needs draining or other amend- 

 ment as much or more than manure, are other facts which every- 

 body knows and but few act upon, and which consequently need 

 continual urging by example and by precept. 



That the best way for a farmer to find what ingredie.nts of 

 plant food his soil and crops want, and with what fertilizers they 

 can best be supplied, is by direct experiment; and that such experi- 

 ments as have been detailed in these reports, when properly con- 

 ducted, do bring reliable answers and are within the power of 

 ordinary farmers, are facts that seem to me to have been so 

 thoroughly illustrated as to make fiirther discussion of their 

 practicability and utility, unnecessary here. 



As to the feeding capacities of different plants, the results of 

 the last year's special nitrogen experiments, which have been much 

 more numerous than those of previous years, simply confirm and 



