518 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



persons employed in this work, including miners, manufacturing labor- 

 ers, chemists, engineers, clerks, etc., is about 10,000. 



"The degree of practical interest which may attach to tWs subject now or in 

 future, from the American standpoint, will depend largely upon whether tiiere remain 

 undiscovered in our country deposits of potash minerals which may lead to the 

 establishment of similar industries, and in the end render American farmers and 

 other consumers of potash salts independent of imported supplies. . . . To quote 

 the opinion of a leading European expert : ' Not until the substrata which lie beneath 

 all the principal American salt beds have been explored to a depth of at least 3,000* 

 ft., will it bo delinitely known whether or not nature has stored on the Western 

 Continent a supply of potash adequate and fitted to complete the trinity and balance 

 the nitrates of Chile and the i^hosphates of the Florida peninsula.'" 



Plan for better and simpler commercial fertilizers, C. W. Dai?- 



NEY, Jr. {Amer. Fert., 1 {189i), No. 5, pp. ;J59-263).—Th(i object of this 

 paper is stated to.be "to direct attention to sources of the abuses which 

 are doing the legitimate fertilizer trade so much harm and put inter- 

 ested persons to thinking about a sensible plan for preparing, adver- 

 tising, and selling commercial fertilizers." 



The chaotic system of naming fertilizers in vogue is strongly depre- 

 cated and it is urged that " commercial fertilizers should be mixed and 

 branded after some more uniform method, so that they may become 

 easily recognized and thoroughly understood articles of commerce, like 

 ordinary chemicals or manufactured products." It is explained at some 

 length that there is no sound basis for considering a manure containing 

 available phosphoric acid, ammonia, and potash in the proportion of 8, 3, 

 and 2 as the best " complete" fertilizer. There is good reason for believ- 

 ing that phosphoric acid fertilizing is overdone and that the proportion 

 of phosphoric acid in common fertilizers should be reduced and that of 

 potash increased. A basis for mixing fertilizers embodying these ideas 

 is given and a simple system of naming fertilizers is described. 



Methods of manuring, J. W. Sanborn ( Utah Sta. Rpt. 1893, pp. 

 157-163). — The experiments with barnyard manure on different cereals 

 commenced in 1892 (B. S. li., 5, p. 34) were continued during 1893. 



The results of tests of diiferent methods of application show that 

 plowing under 6 to 7 in. deep is preferable to applying as toj) dressing 

 and that spreading on the surface in the winter is more bieneficial than 

 top-dressing and harrowing in. Observations on the temperature of 

 sandy loam, unmanured and manured by different methods, showed 

 that the soil was warmest where no manure was applied, next warmest 

 where it was applied wholly on top. 



As in previous experiments, unhoused manure gave slightly better 

 results than housed, "but the figures are so close that they are within 

 the limit of error or slight variation. The probable facts are that we 

 do not have rain enough here to leach the manures to any consider- 

 able extent." 



In comparative trials of manure from hogs, sheep, and horses on 

 wheat and oats, the best results were obtained with the hog manure, 



