124 



In an experiment by Mr. B. E. Furnas, in Miami County, on a " sugar- 

 tree clay, with subsoil of gray clay and gravel," wliich had been in cul- 

 tivation eighty years, all the fertilizing elements seem to have increased 

 the crop, whether used singly or in combination. The details are given 

 in a table. "The average yield of the unfertilized plats was, avoiding 

 fractions, 43 bushels per acre: that of the plats receiving a single fer- 

 tilizing elemeut, 50 bushels ; that of the plats receiving two elements, 

 60 bushels, and that of the one receiving the three, 73 bushels — an in- 

 crease of 7, 17, and 30 bushels, respectively. But even with this large 

 increase, the complete fertilizer has failed to pay its cost, with corn at 

 33^ cents a bushel, while the partial fertilizers have been used with still 

 greater loss." 



The results of the Ashtabula County ami Huron County tests are strikingly uni- 

 form. These tests are located nearly 100 miles apart, but both agree in showing- that 

 on those soils and for this season phosphoric acid was the essential element in a fer- 

 tilizer for corn, with potash next in importance, while nitrogen was not needed at 

 all. * * * 



In the Butler County test, located in the opposite corner of the State from the one 

 in Ashtabula, and nearly 250 miles to the southwest, nitrogen seems to be as little 

 required for the development of the corn plant as in the more northerly region; but 

 in this test potash seems to play the leading part, with phosphoric acid second in 

 importance. 



Holmes and Miami Counties lie in the middle belt of the State, but about 100 miles 

 apart. In the test in these counties we have again a series of as striking coincidences 

 in the results as those found in the Ashtabula and Huron County tests; but here ni- 

 trogen appears to have been equally efficacious with phosphoric acid in increasing 

 the yield, whether used alone or in combination, and potash has held about the same 

 rank as in the northern counties. 



Conclusions. — In the author's opinion the following conclusions, though 

 based on the experiments of one or two seasons, are more likely to be 

 confirmed than reversed by future experience. 



(1) On soils capable of producing 50 bushels of shelled corn per acre 

 with good drainage and tillage, no artificial fertilizer or combination of 

 such fertilizers is likely to produce sufficient increase of crop to pay the 

 cost of the fertilizer in the crop to which it is applied, at present prices 

 of corn and fertilizing materials. 



(2) On soils that are decidedly deficient in natural fertility, phos- 

 phoric acid may sometimes be used with profit as a fertilizer for corn, 

 and potash and nitrogen may be so used in rare instances, and this 

 whether these substances be used separately or in combination. 



Field experiments tvith fertilizers on oats (pp. 48, 49). — The arrange- 

 ment of plats and application of fertilizers were the same as in the 

 preceding experiments. The benefits of nitrogen were well marked 

 throughout the season, but were lost by the lodging of the grain. 

 "The problem of securing larger crops of oats is rendered doubly 

 complex by the tendency of this plant to lodge when well fed." 



Field experiments unth fertilizers on wheat (pp. 49-56). — A plat ex- 

 periment conducted at the station on the plan previously describecl 



