EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 125 



Hemp. — Grown on the Curiosity Strip attained a height of five feet 

 and made a healthy, vigorous growth. 



The following is'a list of plants which failed to make a growth in any 

 measure worthy of consideration : Esparsette, soja beans, oats and flax 

 from Armenia, chnfas, kidney vetch, teosinte, caterpillars, old man salt 

 bush, opium poppy, Dyers' madder. 



FERTILIZER EXPERIMENT. 



On July 10, several sections of the State were visited by a light frost. 

 Evidence of its visitation were seen on the muck land which was planted 

 to corn in Field No. 13, about one acre of this field being destroyed by 

 the frost. Accordingly, it was decided to inaugurate there some fer- 

 tilizer experiments, to be the initial of a considerable work in that line, 

 provided the results of this experiment gave promise of anything that 

 would be valuable elsewhere under similar conditions. Eight plots, of 

 one-tenth acre each, were measured off, twenty-two feet wide by 198 feet 

 long, and treated as follows: 



Plot No. 1 — Leached ashes, five tons per acre. 



Plot No. 2 — Sand from the gravel pit, one inch thick. 



Plot No. 3 — Nothing, ordinary cultivation. 



Plot No. 4 — Air slaked lime, two tons per acre. 



Plot No. 5 — Commercial fertilizer, 400 pounds per acre. 



Plot No. 6 — Home-mixed fertilizer, equal in nitrogen, phosphoric acid 

 and potash to the commercial fertilizer applied in No. 5. 



Plot No. 7 — Barnyard manure, ten cords per acre. 



Plot No. 8 — Thoroughly rolled, otherwise receiving the same cultiva- 

 tion as the other plots. 



The materials applied were carefully harrowed in, and the following 

 •crnps were sown in duplicate across the plot, the west end of the plots 

 being duplicate of the crop sown on the east end: Crimson clover, flat 

 turnips, corn, peas, buckwheat, rape, barley, oats, Hungarian grass, mil- 

 let, radishes and cabbages. Owing to the dry weather which followed 

 the planting of these crops and the lateness of the season at which they 

 w-ere sown, several of them made no growth worthy of mention. The flat 

 turnips and the radishes made decidedly better growths on the plots 

 manured with commercial fertilizer, home-mixed fertilizer and barnyard 

 manure, while the crimson clover showed evidences of a preference to 

 the plot on which sand was applied. Further notes were taken upon the 

 growth of these plants, the turnips from each plot were weighed and 

 several photographs taken, all of which may be published after a more 

 thorough investigation of the experiment. 



The conditions which prevail in this particular piece of land resemble 

 so closely those or vast areas of muck land throughout the State that if 

 any measure of success is obtained by the treatment that we may inaugu- 

 rate here, further trials wall probably be offered by the Station for a co 

 operative experiment along this line in other places. 



Respectfullv submitted, 



J. D. TOWAR, 

 Agriculturist. 



Agricultural College, Mich., Nov. 1, 1898. 



