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1913 VE w : y 



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Issued January 4, 1913. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



BUREAU OF SOILS CIRCULAR No. 75. 

 MILTON WHITNEY, Chief. 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



Washington, D. C., October 26, 1912. 



SIR : I have the honor to transmit herewith the manuscript of an article on 

 Manganese as a Fertilizer, by M. ~K. Sullivan and W. O. Robinson, of this bu- 

 reau, and to recommend that it be published as Circular 75 of the Bureau of 

 Soils. 



Very respectfully, MILTON WHITNEY, 



Chief of Bureau. 

 Hon. JAMES WILSON, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



MANGANESE AS A FERTILIZER. 

 By M. X. SULLIVAN and W. O. ROBINSON. 



A review of the literature shows that numerous fertilizer experi- 

 ments have been made with manganese compounds in water culture, 

 pot culture, and in the field. The salts of manganese employed have 

 been the dioxide, carbonate, iodide, nitrate, chloride, and sulphate, 

 in quantities varying from 9 to 5,340 pounds, but usually less than 

 100 pounds to the acre, especially of the more soluble salts. The 

 results of the experiments have varied somewhat, but in a majority 

 of the cases applications of not over 50 pounds of manganese salts 

 to the acre have given increased yields of a variety of crops on widely 

 different soils. The crops experimented with have been rice, peas, 

 beans, vetch, oats, wheat, barley, corn, potatoes, sugar beets, carrots, 

 mustard, cabbage, onions, radishes, apricots, tobacco, and grass. Its 

 action on rice and the leguminous crops seems to be more favorable 

 than on corn, carrots, sugar beets, barley, potatoes, and tobacco. In 

 many cases the increase has been very appreciable; upward of 25 

 and 30 per cent. In a number of instances no increase has been ob- 

 tained. Large applications of manganese salts that is, more than 

 75 or 100 pounds to the acre have in general been found injurious. 



It should be borne in mind that in all cases but one the experi- 

 ments referred to have been made abroad. At the Arizona Experi- 

 ment Station, however, it was found that manganese chloride 

 stimulated the formation of potato tubers. Considerable work has 



68146 Cir. 75 13 



