178 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OP AGRICULTURE. 



Cabbages, radishes, melons, squashes, and beans have succeeded. My largest expe- 

 rience is with onions from the seed; the first year, after getting 2 inches high, many 

 turned yellow on top and finally died ; second year they were better, and third year 

 good. 



In regard to manures used : 



In plats as follows : First year, ashes and lime, fresh slaked ; ashes 200 bushels to 

 the acre, lime 2 tons to the acre ; crop failed. Same plat, second year : Hen drop- 

 pings at the rate of 10 cubic yards per acre, composited with plaster, and just previ- 

 ous to application mixed with twice their bulk of white-ash ashes. Yield, 300 to 400 

 bushels per acre. Third year: Garden City phosphate, 1,000 pounds per acre. Yield 

 improved. This year (16b5) applied nitrate of soda 150 pounds, Garden City phos- 

 phate 800 pounds per acre ; the crop is of fair jiromise in the main, but there are spots 

 where a good stand has disappeared ; in these barren spots there will be found small 

 patches of fine onions marking the spot of a fire. The original plat, treated this year 

 as above, '-.ow (July) promises a fine crop. This year I have taken in new ground 

 with the a ove-stated results. 



The sample was dried to make it more secure when sent through the mail. 



This sample, as the most casual inspection of the analysis will show, 

 contains an enormous amount of organic matter, and to this may be at- 

 tributed tbe poor success met with in raising crops, as nothing is more 

 injurious than the action of the organic acids, arising from the decay of 

 the organic matter in tbe soil, on vegetation when tiiey are present in 

 excess. For, however fertile the soil may be in other respects, until 

 this excess of humic acids is neutralized or otherwise got rid of, tbe pros- 

 pect of raising remunerative crops is very slight. Tbe remedy for such 

 a state of affairs is a heavy dressing of lime, from 2 to 5 tons of quick- 

 lime per acre, depending on tbe quantity of tbe organic matter present ; 

 that is, from .05 to .5 per cent, by weight of tbe cultivated soil. The 

 lime or marl used has the power of neutralizing the humic acids. Burn- 

 ing might also be resorted to, but the use of lime will probably, in such 

 cases, prove more beneficial. The lime should be used as a top dress- 

 ing, as it has a strong tendency to sink into the subsoil, and so it should 

 not be plowed in, but kept as near the surface as possible. The ground 

 should be plowed first, then the lime spread and simply harrowed in. 

 This dose of lime must not be repeated yearly, but at intervals of six or 

 eight years 1 to 2 tons of lime made into a compost may be used. It is 

 best applied in the early winter, so that the lime may work into the sur- 

 face before tbe spring growth commences. 



The amount of nitrogen and of phosphoric acid is very large, and that 

 of lime, of potash, and soda is abundant for the raising of any crop when 

 the excess of organic acids has been destroyed. With the exception 

 noted, the analysis shows this soil to be a very fertile one, containing 

 an abundant supply of all the necessary plant constituents. 



SOIX, AND SUBSOIL FROM JESSE H. BLAIR, LEBANON, BOONE COUNTY, 



INDIANA. 



2551-2552. The samples were sent January 5, 1884, having been taken 

 on September 12, 1883, "from what is popularly called a prairie region, 

 but what is thought to have once been a lake, in tbe northern part of 

 Ilendricks County ; it was dry and very difQcult to get a good sample. 

 The sample of soil was taken by digging a hole an inch square, then shav- 

 ing a slice downward, about G inches deep. The sample of subsoil was 

 taken from tbe next G inches below the surface sample. The soil is rich, 

 solid, and about 18 inches deep, and in a meadow of timothy grass. The 

 subsoil is tough clay, about 3 feet deep, then sand or gravel. No tim- 

 ber, a swamp or wet prairie, and lately redeemed. No manure has been 

 used." The following crops were raised : Corn, 75 bushels per acre ; 

 large yield of broom corn, then a large yield of hay. It produces a 



