SOILS — FBBTILIZERS. 25 



Experiments with fertilizers, manure, lime, and floats, C. E, Thobne and 

 E. MoHN (Ofiio Sta. Bui. 260, pp. 405-448, figs. 5). — This is a report on experi- 

 ments at the northeastern test farm of the Ohio Station at Strongsville. 



''These experiments, which are still in progress, were begun in 1895 on a 

 cold, heavy clay, lying over compact, argillaceous shales. Part of the land had 

 been in pasture for many years before the experiments were begun, and part 

 under tillage. 



" Wherever phosphorus has been applied on this land, whether carried in acid 

 phosphate, bone meal, or raw phosphate rock, it has produced a profitable 

 increase of crop. 



" Nitrogen and potassium, while increasing the crop, have produced a smaller 

 effect than phosphorus, especially In the earlier years of the work. During 

 more recent years there has been a slowly increasing effect from these elements. 



" While nitrate of soda and muriate of potash have been used at a loss, the 

 fact that the largest yields of crops have been harvested only when the fertilizer 

 has carried nitrogen and potassium in some form indicates the necessity of 

 supplying these elements in some cheaper carrier than chemicals. 



'' For eight years several brands of factory mixed fertilizers were compared 

 with home mixtures of equivalent composition, made of tankage, acid phosphate, 

 and muriate of potash. The outcome of this test was a greater increase of 

 crop from the home mixtures than from the factory mixtures in every case, 

 while the cost of the home mixtures was much less than that of the factory 

 mixtures. 



"Acid phosphate and steamed bone meal have been the most effective carriers 

 of phosphorus. Apparently there has been very little difference in effectiveness 

 between the pound of ' available ' phosphorus in acid phosphate and the pound 

 of total phosphorus in steamed bone meal. 



" Steamed bone meal has been more effective than raw bone meal, a result 

 which may have been due in part to the finer grinding of the steamed meal and 

 in part to the low effect of nitrogenous fertilizers on this soil. 



" Raw phosphate rock appears to have been effective in proportion to the 

 'available' phosphorus contained. When applied at the rate of 2,000 lbs. per 

 acre every five years, raw phosphate rock has produced a greater increase in 

 the cereal crops than raw limestone in twice that quantity. In the earlier 

 experiments clover was benefited by the phosphate rock, but in more recent 

 years the clover has failed on the phosphated land, though growing with increas- 

 ing luxuriance on that receiving limestone. 



"As a direct application to the land, therefore, acid phosphate and steamed 

 bone meal have been found to be more economical sources of phosphorus than 

 raw phosphate rock. 



" Lime is as urgently needed on this land as phosphorus, it having become 

 practically impossible to grow clover until lime has been applied, no matter 

 how thoroughly the land was manured or fertilized." 



The preservation of cattle manure (Planters' Chron., 8 (1913), No. 43, 

 pp. 550-552). — Comparative tests on a rotation of crops of deep stall manure 

 and manure preserved in pits and heaps with and without addition of loam soil 

 are briefly reported. These indicated that for the shallow-rooted crops the best 

 results were obtained with the manure containing the largest amount of 

 organic matter, the effect being due largely to the mechanical condition of the 

 manure rather than to its relative percentage of fertilizing constituents. 



The deep stall manure contained on the basis of dry matter 56.9 per cent of 

 organic matter, the pit manure 45.01 per cent, and ordinary heap manure 38.87 

 per cent. 



