EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS. 65 



the intelligent and economical use of fertilizers. To find 

 out whether each of these substances is wantins^ in the soil 

 of each farm or field, and the smallest proportion of each with 

 which we can obtain maximum crops, is another step, and a 

 longer one, in advance, of supplying each substance to every 

 soil in the same proportions, or in the proportion found in 

 each crop. To furnish enough of each of these elements to 

 grow a crop on any soil is much like the quack doctor who 

 gave his patient a mixture of all the medicinal drugs with 

 which he was acquainted, so as to be sure and hit his case 

 with one of them. 



In fact, as different crops remove different proportions of 

 these elements of fertility, and while some crops are sold off 

 the farm entire, others are fed to stock on the farm, and 

 when so fed different kinds and conditions of stock remove 

 varying quantities of these elements, so that stable manure 

 seldom, if ever, returns to the soil just the same proportions 

 of these elements of fertility as are removed by the crops, 

 and as different soils in their natural condition vary in their 

 composition, it is more than probable that the soil of many 

 of our farms is unequally impoverished, or thrown out of 

 balance, so far as fertility is concerned. To arrive at some 

 definite knowledge of the special requirements of the soil of 

 my own farm, in the spring of 1879 I procured a variety of 

 chemical fertilizers, prepared under the direction of Prof. 

 W. O. Atwater, and applied them each on a separate plot on 

 half an acre of worn-out land, for the purpose of testing the 

 soil after the manner proposed by the " American Agricul- 

 turist." On two other plots I used, upon one ashes, and upon 

 the other sulphate of magnesia. These plots were parallel 

 to each other, one rod wide and eight rods long. 



The fertilizers were applied half in the hill and half broad- 

 cast. They were planted with corn, and in the following 

 table I give the kinds and amounts of fertilizers used, and 

 their respective yields : — 



