1917] AGRICULTURE IN WAR-TIME. 227 
Potash has not proved remunerative on heavy clay soils, but on many 
light loams it has given a good return, for encouraging the growth of 
clover, potatoes and leafy crops generally. Muck and peaty soils are 
improved by this element. No potassic fertilizer has proved more 
valuable than good hardwood ashes, and this is the chief home source 
of this element which we can now rely on, as the German potash salts 
since the war cannot be purchased save at prohibitive prices. 
THE MARITIME PROVINCES AND QUEBEC.—By far the larger amount 
of our experimental work with fertilizers in recent years has been carried 
on in the Maritime provinces. It is quite evident that there is in these 
parts of the Dominion a larger and more lucrative field for fertilizers 
than in Ontario,:not simply as we might suspect from poorer soils, but 
from the fact that the crops upon which they are used in these provinces 
are more particularly money or cash crops—potatoes, apples, etc. Upon 
such crops the prospect of a remunerative response is greatly enhanced, 
for the maximum gross returns are larger than, for instance, in grain 
growing. It is also probable that taken as a whole the seasonal con- 
ditions in the Maritime provinces are more favourable to the fuller use 
of the fertilizer by the crop, than in Ontario. 
It is satisfactory to note that the deductions from our experiments 
at Ottawa, already stated, hold good in the main for Eastern Canada. 
Invariably the more lucrative response from fertilizers is on land rich 
or fairly rich in humus, the fertility of which is kept up by manure and 
the growing of clover. These means are indispensable for the profitable 
employment of fertilizers. 
The largest profits have not always been obtained by what might be 
termed excessive applications of fertilizer, say 1,000 lbs. and over, but 
usually from a combination of manure with a moderate dressing of say 
500 to 800 lbs. of a well-balanced complete fertilizer. These results have 
been confirmed at many points and in different seasons. It is quite 
true, however, that larger applications can be used with profit in the 
Maritime provinces and British Columbia than in Ontario. Potatoes 
are the principal crop to which the fertilizer is applied, the land being 
under a three or four year rotation. 
Summing up this teaching with respect to fertilizers, we conclude 
that the exclusive use of fertilizers will neither keep up the fertility of the 
soil nor yield profitable returns; that it is on soils of medium rather than 
poor quality that a lucrative response from their employment is to be 
expected; that they can profitably be used to supplement the home source 
of fertility, farm manures; that the largest returns are not necessarily 
from the largest applications and, lastly, that it is on the money crop of 
the rotation, such as potatoes, that their application is most profitable. 
