556 "EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Carnations. — Three plats, each having an area of about 7 sq. ft., 

 were planted with Garfield, Lizzie McGowan, and Daybreak carnations. 

 The soil of one plat was compost without fertilizers; of another plat, 

 compost with the addition of 29 gm. of nitrate of soda, 14.8 gm. muri- 

 ate of potash, and 12.25 gm. of dissolved boneblack; of a third plat, 

 ashes and peat, with the addition of twice the quantities of fertilizers 

 used in the compost plat. 



A table is given showing the number and average diameter of flowers 

 produced by each variety in each plat. No analyses of flowers or 

 plants were made. A more extensive experiment is to be reported 

 later. The authors say: "These cultures prove that good carnations 

 may be grown in coal ashes and peat with fertilizer chemicals, and that 

 both the number and the average diameter of the flowers may be con- 

 siderably greater than where a portion or the whole of the plant food 

 is supplied by soil or manure." 



Cucumbers. — A preliminary experiment was made with fertilizers for 

 cucumbers. Each of the 20 plats in the test contained an area of 

 about 14.5 sq. ft., and received 10.3 gm. of phosphoric acid and 5G.2 

 gm. of potash in the forms of dissolved boneblack and muriate of potash 

 respectively. Five plats containing coal ashes and peat, received in 

 addition from 24 to G4 gm. of nitrogen in the form of nitrate of soda 

 and 5 received equivalent quantities in the form of cotton-seed meal; 

 each of the 10 compost plats received 32 gin. of nitrogen, part as 

 nitrate of soda and part as cotton-seed meal. Seed of Arlington White 

 Spine encumbers was sown May 1. Early in July the plants in ashes 

 and peat were much larger than those in compost, and the ones given 

 nitrate nitrogen were thriftier than those given nitrogen in cotton-seed 

 meal. The experiment was concluded about the middle of September. 

 The plants in compost produced $~>S> lbs. of cucumbers per hundred 

 square feet of bench area, and those in ashes and peat 99 lbs.; the 

 average weight of a single cucumber being 7.2 oz. in the former case, 

 and 7.4 oz. in the latter. In ashes and peat the 2 forms of nitrogen 

 were about equally efficient, but in compost the cotton-seed meal was 

 much more efficient as a nitrogen source than the nitrate of soda. The 

 cucumbers grown in compost contained 0.095 per cent nitrogen, 0.053 

 per cent phosphoric acid, and 0.222 per cent potash; those in coal 

 ashes and peat 0.083 per cent nitrogen, 0.032 per cent phosphoric acid, 

 and 0.207 per cent potash. The vines and roots contained the follow- 

 ing quantities of fertilizer constituents per plat: With compost soil, 

 nitrogen 5.09 gm., phosphoric acid 1.20 gm., potash 12.08 gm. ; with ashes 

 and peat, nitrogen 4.54 gm., phosphoric acid 0.01 gm., potash 7.77 gm. 



Radishes. — The soils used in this test were a mixture of ashes and 

 peat as before, and a compost of garden soil with one-third its bulk of 

 manure. Commercial fertilizers were used in varying amounts. Three 

 crops of Cardinal Globe radishes were grown. The plants were pulled 

 when only % in. in diameter, and tied in bunches of 10 each. Eight 



