CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION. 47 



cl aracteristic of heavy clays, nor would the same treatment correct the 

 lack of available potash in a true lime stone soil. 



Different crops require plant food in different proportions. One of 

 these elements cannot replace the other. A soil that yields fair crops of 

 wheat may need an additional plant food element to produce the best 

 results on corn, potatoes, or clover. Moreover, different crops have 

 different foraging power for plant food. Hence the results of a chemi- 

 cal analysis of a soil are very difficult to interpret. 



Another point to remember is that, if you have only enough of any 

 one element, say potash, in an available form, to produce twenty bushels 

 of corn, the crop will be limited to twenty bushels even if there is enough 

 of the other elements in an available form to produce three times this 

 yield. Under the soil skinning processes that have been in vogue on 

 most American farms it has usually happened that the crop producing 

 power has been decreased and frequently this has been by the reduction 

 of the amount of only one or two elements. If phosphoric acid is the 

 one that failed first the condition cannot be most profitably corrected by 

 farm yard manure, because manure is low in phosphoric acid and by 

 using it alone on such land you lose the benefit of the nitrogen, which 

 is its most valuable, abundant and characteristic ingredient. In the 

 same way the use of manure alone on much land or black prairie wastes 

 a lot of nitrogen without fully supplying the deficiency of potash. 



By the use of commercial plant foods any element may be increased 

 at will, and both soil differences and crop requirements may be provided 

 for. 



Will it pay? Many Misouri farmers evidently think it does pay, 

 for they are using over 30,000 tons of fertilizer per year, and the amount 

 is rapidly increasing. Most of this is on wheat, but experiments con- 

 ducted in this State during the past season indicate that its use on corn 

 and potatoes will also prove profitable. The first fertilizers introduced 

 into the wheat territory are usually packing house products of good 

 quality, but containing only nitrogen and phosphoric acid. 



In the following experiments nitrogen and phosphoric acid were 

 tested against no fertilizer on one side and a complete fertilizer on the 

 other : 



EXPERIMENT AT MARIONVILLE, MISSOURI. 

 (By Mr. William Menogue, On Corn.) 



Plat I, no fertilizer. Yield 20 bushels per acre, mostly nubbins. 



Plat 2, fertilizer with 336 lbs. bone and 188 lbs. blood. Yield 29 1-3 



bushels of mostly small corn. Fertilizer cost, $8.50, increase 



worth $4.66; net loss $3.84. 



