Winter Meeting. 411 



and the land has not been hard cropped with corn or other grain crops, 

 from 100 to 150 pounds of bone meal per acre, or 400 pounds of rock 

 phosphate will be sufficient to apply once every third or fourth year for 

 ten or twelve years, when there would be sufficient phosphoric acid to 

 satisfy all of the demands of the orchard perhaps until its usefulness had 

 ended. As has already been shown, the amount of phosphoric acid used 

 by bearing orchards is not large, but most Missouri soils are depleted 

 of this material earlier than any other, with the possible exception of 

 nitrogen. 



RELATIVE VALUE OF DIFFERENT FORMS OF POTASH SALTS. 



Generally speaking, the supply of wood ashes lias been exhausted. 

 This leaves two important forms of potash in commercial fertilizers, 

 commonly known as the muriate of potash and the sulphate of potash. 

 One is quite as readily available as the other, since the potash in both 

 of the salts is readily soluble in water. 



For general agricultural crops, such as corn, wheat, timothy, etc., 

 and perhaps for potatoes that are sold on the open market in a mature 

 condition, the muriate serves every purpose and is considerably cheaper 

 than the sulphate. It has long been known, however, that the presence 

 of the muriate exercised a deleterious effect upon the quality of certain 

 delicate and very sensitive crops. For example, a high grade cigar 

 tobacco cannot under any circumstances be grown with this salt. Grapes 

 do not produce a high class wine when fed upon a muriate. Early pota- 

 toes are edible and palatable much younger and come on earlier when 

 fed upon a sulphate than a muriate. 



It has been assumed by practically all of the agricultural chemists 

 of the country that for the ordinary fruits, such as the apple, peach, 

 pear and plum, the muriate is quite as effective. Therefore, in all of the 

 fruit formulae the potash is suggested to be in the form of a muriate on 

 account of its relative cheapness. 



Some experim.ents now in progress, however, at the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, indicate that a sulphate is superior to 

 a muriate. The results have not been published, and it is through the 

 courtesy of Professor of Agriculture, Dr. Wm. P. Brooks, Professor of 

 Agriculture and Acting President, that I am permitted to make the fore- 

 going statement. 



In a recent letter to the writer. Dr. Brooks says: "One of the most 

 striking points brought out by our experiments, which began with the 

 setting of the orchard in 1894 and have continued since, is the great su- 



