SPECIAL FERTILIZERS. 395 



per acre more than Plot I, similarly fed, except that 

 half of the nitrate was applied at the first and the bal- 

 ance at second cultivating. This fact is directly con- 

 trary to theory, and is not due to the absence of suffi- 

 cient moisture after the second application to dissolve 

 the nitrate so that the plants could feed upon it, because 

 the same result was noted during the first dry season 

 and the succeeding wet years. 



Linseed meal gave quite as good results in yield and 

 quality as cottonseed meal. Indeed, the more moderate 

 application per acre, on Plot F, of linseed meal, with 

 less than half as much cottonhull ashes as some of the 

 other plots, and a little bone meal, produced one of the 

 most profitable crops, because cost of fertilizer was 

 smaller than on other plots. In view of results on F, it 

 is a question whether so much as 340 pounds per acre of 

 actual potash is at all necessary. 



The form of potash used seems to have as much 

 effect as the quantity. The carbonate of potash gave 

 distinctly unfavorable results compared with sulphate, 

 which is now used for tobacco by all scientific farmers. 

 The poorest yield of all was on P, dressed with double 

 carbonate of potash and magnesia. Yet tobacco on this 

 soil evidently needed magnesia, for on K and L, where 

 potash was put on in the form of double manure salt 

 (consisting of sulphate of potash united with sulphate 

 of magnesia), the yield was considerably better than 

 where only high-grade sulphate of potash was concerned. 



With these crops of cigar wrapper leaf, quality 

 was what determined their market value. It depends 

 upon color, texture, thinness, lightness, freedom from 

 spots, holes, coarse ribs or other imperfections, burning 

 quality, and other even more delicate points. It is not 

 possible to intelligently average these points in the four 

 years' crops from each plot. But the average number 

 of wrappers required to weigh a pound is important, as 



