COMMERCIAL AND SPECIAL FERTILIZERS. 105 



expense. The price ranged from $8 to $12 per cord, or on an 

 average of $150 per acre ; and in trying to reduce this expense 

 we commenced testing different fertilizers, planting, in 1874, 

 one acre of strawberries manured with two tons of fish scrap, 

 at $20 per ton, and one hundred bushels of unleached wood- 

 ashes, at 30 cents per bushel ; making a total cost of $70. 

 The result was a strong, rapid growth of plants early in the 

 summer, but in September and October they began to show 

 signs of not having plant food enough, and then we saw our 

 mistake in using fish in place of bone, or some other slow-act- 

 ing fertilizer that the plants could not have taken up so greedily 

 early in the summer, but would have had to feed on slowly all 

 through the season. The fruit crop the following year, as 

 might have been expected, was not a success, being only about 

 half a crop. In 1875, we planted another acre, using one ton 

 of ground bone and one hundred bushels of wood-ashes, at a 

 total cost of $73; the result was a fine, even growth of plants 

 all through the season, and a perfect crop of fruit the following 

 year, fully equal to that on adjoining acres that had been ma- 

 nured with stable manure at a cost of $150 per acre, to say 

 nothing of the carting of such a great bulk of manure. In the 

 spring of 1876, being so well pleased with the appearance of 

 our one acre manured with bone and ashes, we planned to fer- 

 tihze all of our fruits in the same way. Then the question 

 arose, where were we to get the ashes ? We could buy enough 

 for an acre or two, but not enough for our whole farm. What 

 were we to do ? Potash we must have, as that is the leading 

 element of plant food required by small fruits of all kinds. We 

 found we must look to the German potash salts for what we 

 wanted, and we therefore bought several tons of High Grade 

 (80 per cent) muriate of potash at ^^40 per ton, using 1,000 

 pounds per acre, and one ton of bone at $35, making a total 

 cost of only %'^^ per acre. The plants did not grow quite as 

 well early in the season as those on the fields where ashes were 

 used, but later in the season they made a very fine growth, and 

 at fruiting time, in 1877, we harvested a full and abundant crop 

 of strawberries and raspberries. Since that time we have used 

 nothing but ground bone and muriate of potash to manure all 



