60 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



dried blood and superphosphate, corresponding to a first-class 

 " ammoniated " superphosphate, did scarcely an}^ better. In each 

 case the crop was, as Mr. Sage says, " all refuse corn and hardly 

 worth saving." But with the complete fertilizers, the yields were 

 good. Hen manure, which furnished all the ingredients of plant 

 food, brought about forty bushels of shelled corn per acre. The 

 mixture of dried blood, superphosphate, and potash salt, which cost 

 at the rate of $16 per acre, and furnished nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid, and potash, but doubtless in larger quantities than the hen 

 manure, brought sixty bushels of very fine corn to the acre. 

 •■' This," Mr. Sage says, " was such a crop as I like to have. It 

 grew well all summer, and the corn >vas very fine. The stalks were 

 large and green when the corn was ripe, and will make excellent 

 fodder." This soil showed the need of a complete fertilizer. 



A similar series of experiments was made on the farm of the 

 Maine Agricultural College b}' a student, Mr. Lufkin, under the 

 direction of the Professor of Agriculture, Mr. Farrington. In these 

 experiments potash did little apparent good. Potash salts alone, 

 improved the 3'ield very slightlj' , or not at all, and fell far short of 

 pajdng their costs. Mixed with dried blood and superphosphate, 

 the case was a trifle better. On other portions of this field. Prof. 

 Farrington had no success with kainit, and found leached ashes 

 to help grass as much as unleached. Among the crops most apt to 

 be helped by potash are grass, potatoes, roots, and the leguminous 

 crops, which include beans. None of these got an^' apparent benefit 

 from the potash here. On the whole, potash does not seem to be 

 needed on this land. 



The only case where dried blood alone seemed of any use was 

 with potatoes ; but with phosphoric acid it evidently increased the 

 crop in several cases. 



Phosphoric acid was uniformly and largel}'' beneficial. The 

 superphosphate alone, gave the largest potato crop of all. It also 

 served an excellent purpose with nitrogen there, and the two 

 together brought the best yield of turnips on the field. 



Taking all in all, as tested by the crops and fertilizers named, 

 the chief need of this soil seems to be phosphoric acid ; the next 

 nitrogen. In its present condition it does not seem to call for 

 potash. 



As indicated by the experiments, this is a soil on which artificial 

 fertilizers of the right kinds, and with the right crops, can be used 



