934 



EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



ble, 2 crops per year upon this land until some marked indications of a deficiency 

 of potash might show themselves by those plants which received soda without any 

 addition of potash. ... In accordance with this plan the 2 crops selected for 1896 

 were oats and millet, the oats being sown as early as possible and cut while in the 

 milk, so as to enable the millet to enjoy as long a period of growth as possible. . , 



"Dried blood was employed at the rate of 1,020 lbs. per acre or 17 lbs. per plat, 

 dissolved boneblack at the rate of 600 lbs. per acre or 10 lbs. per plat, and finely 

 ground phosphate rock (floats) at the rate of 180 lbs. per acre or 8 lbs. per plat. 

 Each plat received, likewise, magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts) at the rate of 420 

 lbs. per acre or 7 lbs. per plat. Those plats which received lime in 1891 were again 

 limed in 1896 at the rate of 1,200 lbs. per acre of air-slacked lime or 20 lbs. per plat. 

 Full, three-quarters, half, and quarter rations of the potassium and sodium salts 

 were employed in a similar manner as in the 2 preceding years, the full rations in 

 1896 being as follows: Potassium carbonate, 360 lbs. per acre, equal to 6 lbs. per 

 plat; sodium carbonate, 210.6 lbs. per acre, equal to 4.01 lbs. per plat; muriate of 

 potash, 394.4 lbs. per acre, equal to 6.64 lbs. per plat; sodium chlorid, 274.2 lbs. per 

 acre, equal to 4.57 lbs. per plat.'' 



Kesults of the different systems of fertilizing are shown for both 

 crops in tables and diagrams. The results are summarized as follows: 



" The inferiority of soda in the absence of potash, as compared with potash in the 

 absence of soda, has become more strikingly manifest from year to year, in each of 

 the 3 years of the experiment. Prior to 1896 the yields were frequently increased 

 by the addition of potash to the full soda ration, and less frequently, if at all, with 

 the addition of soda to the full potash ration. This season, however, in connec- 

 tion with the second crop (millet), the addition of increasing quantities of potash to 

 the full soda ration has increased the crop, in the order of the increased application 

 of potash in each instance. Soda added to the potash ration has this year for the 

 first time given indications of probable usefulness, which, if not incidental, can 

 only become strikingly manifest, if at all, as the depletion of the assimilable potash 

 on the soda plats increases. It would be too hasty to conclude definitely from this 

 year's results that an addition of soda to the potash ration had been positively bene- 

 ficial, and it may be sufficient at this time to state merely that the results are 

 strongly indicative that such may be the case, a point which it is hoped may be 

 determined in future years." 



The results of a comparison on barley and clover of nitrate of potash 

 and of muriate of potash, combined with nitrate of soda, are briefly 

 discussed in this connection. The results of this experiment were not 

 conclusive as to the beneficial or injurious effect of the soda and chlorin 

 upon the plats where muriate of potash and nitrate of soda were used. 



Analyses and valuations of fertilizers, L. A. Voorhees and 

 J. P. Street (Few Jersey Stas. Bui. 124, pp. 48). — This bulletin gives 

 the trade values of fertilizing constituents in 1897 and the results of 

 examinations of the standard materials supplying them, as well as of 

 home mixtures, factory-mixed fertilizers, and miscellaneous fertilizing 

 substances. Analyses and valuations are given of 75 samples of stand- 

 ard raw materials, 285 samples of brands of complete fertilizers, 16 

 brands of home and special mixtures, 35 of ground bone, and 3(5 of 

 miscellaneous products; the materials examined include, in addition to 

 the mixed fertilizers, nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, dried blood, 

 dry ground fish, bone, tankage, dissolved boneblack, dissolved rock 

 phosphates, muriate and sulphate of potash, kaiuit, double sulphate of 



