126 ■ EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



years experiments have been made on 371 different "farms in the State. 

 The general results of this work are briefl}' discussed and the character 

 of the work is illustrated by accounts of a few of the experiments 

 made. 



"A study of all the experiments for 3 years recorded shows that of the 3 plant 

 foods, when used alone, nitrogen gave the largest increased yield in 26 experiments, 

 phosphoric acid in 58 experiments, and potash in 36 experiments. This would seem 

 to indicate that when one plant food is used alone, phosphoric acid will in most cases 

 give the best results. When a mixture of 2 plant foods was applied, nitrogen and 

 potash gave best results in 24 experiments, phosphoric acid and potash in 48 experi- 

 ments, and nitrogen and phosphoric acid in 52 experiments. A comparison of a 

 complete fertilizer and stable manure shows in 38 experiments the complete fertilizer 

 gave better results, while in 54 cases stable manure produced the larger crops. These 

 good results accompanying the use of stable manure may not be due so much to the 

 plant food it contains as to an improvement in the physical conditions of the soil. 



"In only 40 cases out of a total of 126 recorded did the complete fertilizer, a mix- 

 ture of nitrate of soda, phosphate and muriate of potash, give better results than 

 fertilizers containing one or two of the plant foods. 



"These results tend to show that more often it is some especially prepared rather 

 than a complete fertilizer that a soil requires, and that when a farmer uses commer- 

 cial fertilizers he is often not following the wisest policy; he is simply 'going it blind' 

 and possibly throwing away money." 



Field tests with fertilizers on heavy clay lands, H. A. Huston 



{Indiana Sta. Bui. SI, pp. 77-92.) — This is an account of fertilizer 

 experiments on tenth-acre or twentieth-acre plats on 3 farms in the 

 State, 2 in Orange County and 1 in Monroe County. In the first two 

 cases the soil was oak clay resting on red clay subsoil, and in the third 

 case the soil was cold, badly drained upland oXaj. Mechanical analyses 

 of one of the Orange County soils, the jNIonroe County soil, and the 

 soil of the experiment station farm at Lafa^vette, a dark, productive 

 loam, are given. . Corn was grown on all of the farms in 1896. The 

 fertilizers used were nitrate of soda, 60 lbs. per acre; muriate of pot- 

 ash, 60 and 120 lbs., and dissolved boneblack, 230 and 250 lbs., 2 by 

 2 and all 3 combined; and on 1 plat in each experiment (except one) 

 lime (1,100 and 2,800 lbs. per acre) was used in addition to the com- 

 plete fertilizer. Wheat followed corn on 2 of the farms (one in 

 Orange County and the other in Monroe County). The fertilizers 

 used on the wheat were nitrate of soda, 71 and 118 lbs. per acre; dis- 

 solved boneblack, 121 and 218 lbs.; muriate of potash, 21 and 16 lbs., 

 and lime, 2,800 lbs. In addition to these fertilizers, bone alone, at the 

 rate of 200 lbs. per acre, broadcast and drilled in, and acidulated bone 

 acid phosphate, raw bone, and steamed bone, combined with dried 

 blood and potash, were used in the experiments in Monroe County. 



The yields of the crops with the different fertilizers are reported, 

 and the results are discussed "as illustrating how such a test may be 

 conducted. " ' ' On all 8 farms a mixture of acid phosphate and muriate 

 of potash in the proportion of 1 lbs. of phosphate to 1 of muriate gives 



