Experiments in the Growth of Clover. 



Pot Experiments 



359 



For a more complete study of the fertilizer requirements of Volusia 

 silt loam, a series of pots was run in connection with the plot experiments 

 on the Pinckney farm at Newfield. A large composite sample from the 

 unlimed check plots was taken early in the fall and brought into the 

 greenhouse where it was allowed to dry enough to allow handling without 

 puddling the soil, when it was put into three-gallon glazed earthenware 

 pots. The series included 50 pots, which allowed 25 different treatments, 

 with a duplicate in each case. The larger stones were picked out of the 

 soil, but it was not passed through a sieve, as it was the intention to 

 leave the roots and partly decayed organic matter in the soil so that it 

 would represent as nearly as possible the conditions in the field. The 

 number of pots allowed a larger number of treatments than were pos- 

 sible in the field, and a complete set of fertilizer combinations was run 

 both with and without lime, and in addition the plots were carefully dupli- 

 cated with double amounts of fertilizers and manure. Mammoth clover 

 was used in all the pots. The amounts of fertilizer added were based 

 on the surface area of the soil in the pots. The amounts were the same 

 as in the plots (page 350) except in the case of barnyard manure. 



The plants came up soon after seeding but for a long time appeared 

 very weak, and it was not until they had been growing for almost two 

 months that it was thought safe to thin them to the desired three plants 

 in a pot. Later, the growth was more vigorous and soon there was a 

 noticeable difference in favor of the limed pots. About this time a 

 broken pane of glass allowed the rain water to damage badly the pots 

 that had received acid phosphate alone. 



The pot receiving the double application of muriate of potash was the 

 first to bloom, after which the others followed in rapid succession, but 

 there was no regularity in dates of blooming in the check pots so that it 

 is almost impossible to draw any direct conclusions from the effect of 

 the different fertilizer treatments on time of maturing. 



On June nth the pots were all harvested, the height of the three longest 

 runners in each pot taken, and the entire crop put in the oven to dry, 

 in order to ascertain the dry weights, which are given in the following 

 table. 



