156 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



take care that none of any of them gets outside the limits of the plat. Thor- 

 ough mixing with the soil is also essential, so that the amount for each plant 

 may be uniform over the whole plat. The normal applications here given are 

 liberal amounts, and they should be liberal in order to get the true results. 

 In harvesting the crops from the plats there will be need for great care, so 

 that the whole crop and no more is taken from each; and the subsequent 

 handling and separating and weighing should have the most minute care. 

 Study the results carefully and do not come to any hasty or wrong con- 

 clusions. It will take a series of seasons to give the final result, for the 

 peculiarities of the season must be taken into the account. In using such large 

 applications of potash it is very important that it should be well mixed in 

 the soil, and that it does not come in contact with the seed in its caustic state, 

 as it may seriously hamper the experiment to have the germination of the 

 seed interfered with and a lack of uniformity in the number of plants on 

 each. Each spring the whole series of plats may be plowed as one and then 

 again laid off by the stakes that should be kept in place. The master's hand 

 must be in this work, for it cannot be left to the ordinary farm hand if you 

 are to reap any benefit from it. It is not essential that the plats be exactly 

 the length and width stated, provided they contain 2178 square feet, as nearly 

 as possible, as this is the content of the twentieth of an acre. But where 

 practicable, long and narrow plats make a series more easily prepared than 

 would Square plats. The amounts suggested are from the circular sent out 

 by the Department of Agriculture, and they are one pound (or the multiple 

 of a pound) per square rod. Prof. Voorhees suggests that the plats be 

 divided into square rods and the amounts applied to each, but we think that 

 in plats of this size the fertilizers can well be applied broadcast with suffi- 

 cient accuracy if proper care is taken. If, after proper study of these plats 

 for a series of years, it becomes apparent that any one of the constituents 

 does not give results of value it may well be inferred that the soil is not 

 needing more of that, and the farmer should save his money by buying what 

 he needs and not buying what he does not need. He may find that for a 

 certain crop a complete fertilizer with nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash 

 gives the best results. But he need not at once jump to the conclusion that 

 he must buy a complete fertilizer for that crop. He may find, for instance, 

 that the complete fertilizer gives the best result on the corn crop. But in 

 his regular farm rotation he may put that crop on a sod which has received 

 the home-made manure, and its needs for nitrogen will be thus well supplied. 

 But having found that his soil needs both phosphoric acid and potash, he 

 will be wise to use these. But he may find, as many have found, that potash 

 in his soil has little or no effect, and then for the corn crop he need buy only 



