EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS. 69 



In this table the amount and cost of fertilizers and yields 

 are all reduced to acre rates, and the cost per bushel, in- 

 cluding labor, interest and taxes, is given with the profit or 

 loss per bushel. The shelled corn was valued at 67 cents 

 per bushel, and the fodder at $10 per ton, or 33 cents for 

 the average amount with each bushel, so that a bushel of 

 shelled corn and the fodder produced with it is valued at $1, 

 and the profit or loss per bushel is found by the difierence 

 between the cost on each plot and the value at $1 per bushel. 



Although the crops on all the plots were more satisfactory 

 than the year before, yet the relative yields were much the 

 same. The two years' experiments seemed to indicate con- 

 clusively that corn must have an abundant supply of phos- 

 phoric acid, and that the soil of this field was deficient in 

 that element, for every plot without it in some form was but 

 little better than with no fertilizer. While in 1879 nitrate 

 of soda seemed to lessen the yield of grain, in 1880 it in- 

 creased it a little, but in no case enough to pay for its cost. 

 In the first year's experiments, wood ashes used alone did 

 not seem to do much good ; but the second year sulphate of 

 magnesia on the same plot. No. 2, with ashes showed the 

 best results. They worked as well together as was indicat- 

 ed by their accidental mixture the previous season. Ashes 

 with salt, lime and plaster, did nearly as well also. Wood 

 ashes furnish both potash and phosphoric acid, as well as all 

 the other saline constituents of plant-food ; but it is evident 

 that they need the solvent action of the sulphate of magne- 

 sia, or the salt, lime and plaster, to dissolve and dift'use 

 them through the soil and render them available as immedi- 

 ate plant food. 



In the following spring of 1881, at the suggestion of Prof. 

 Atwater, I commenced on adjoining land a new and more 

 complete set of experiments, designed more particularly to 

 test the elFect of different nitrogeneous fertilizers in one-third, 

 two-third and full ration ; but also continuing the tests of 

 superphosphate and potash. This set consisted of twenty 

 plots of one-eighth acre each. The plots, as in the first set, 

 were each one rod wide and eight long, and arranged paral- 

 lel to each other. They were intended to be carried through 

 a rotation of several years, with corn first, followed by po- 



