110 INDIAN CORN. 



application, while in many instances the instruction 

 is clear and unmistakable as language can make it. 



Some of the fertilizers employed will perhaps add 

 nothing to the yield ; showing that the constituents of 

 corn contained in them were already present in the 

 soil in suitable amount and condition. Others will 

 add to the product in various proportions ; some of 

 them increasing the yield probably fifty per cent, or 

 more as compared with the product on the unmanured 

 ground. 



A careful comparison of all the results, and of 

 the ratio they bear to that of the unfertilized sec- 

 tion of his field, will teach him which of all the fer- 

 tilizers employed contain those precise elements of 

 corn that were either absent from the soil, or, if pres- 

 ent, were deficient in quantity or availability. 



Before this trial was made, he did not know, and 

 could not have predicted, the precise effect in any one 

 instance out of ninety. He now has, if the experi- 

 ments have been carefully and accurately executed, 

 an intelligible result for each condition. With proper 

 caution in making his deductions, he may derive from 

 this experimental crop an amount of instruction and 

 practical knowledge that could not have been ob- 

 tained from any other source. 



Even though some of the results should appear 

 doubtful, and some of his deductions prove erroneous, 

 there would still be a clear and decided preponder- 

 ance of positive and reliable information that would 

 pay him many times over for the extra time and 

 labor it has cost him. 



