SOME STATION INVESTIGATIONS IN FERTILIZERS 295 



or rye, for these crops are liable to be slightly injured by fresh applications 

 of lime, some of which is in a caustic state. [We would remark that we have 

 never found this the case, and have used lime freely just before planting corn 

 with the best effects. W. F. M.] 



"These statements, in relation to care in liming just prior to growing 

 rye, Indian corn and millet, apply to cases where the nitrogen supply is 

 chiefly in the form of nitrates, such, for example, as nitrate of soda, and 

 where the soil conditions naturally induce rapid nitrification of the soil-nitro- 

 gen, or of the nitrogen applied in natural and artificial manures, 

 such as ammonium salts or organic matter. If the soil is very sour and ni- 

 trates are not employed, then the use of lime immediately before these crops 

 may prove of great service, for the reason that the benefit derived from the 

 lime by virtue of its facilitating the transformation of the nitrogen into a. 

 form immediately assimilable by the plant, may far outweigh any direct in- 

 jury that the lime might otherwise have exerted." And we would add that 

 no good farmer will be so ignorant as to buy nitrates for his corn in a properly 

 devised rotation, and no harm can come from applying lime to a soil where 

 manure has been plowed under for the corn. 



IMPROVEMENT OF WORN LANDS. 



We find the following in Bulletin 62 of the Louisiana Station. How 

 can the worn lands of Louisiana be most speedily and economically restored 

 to their primitive fertility^ The answer would be, by proper rotation of 

 crops, with or without fertilizers. What crops shall be taken for this rota- 

 tion? Any combination which omits our cow pea would be injudicious. 

 Several years ago this rotation was decided upon as the best one attainable 

 in this section : Corn, oats, followed by cow peas and cotton. This rotation 

 is faulty in principle but correct in practice, and was adopted last season 

 after two years' trial. The corn should precede the cotton, but experience 

 has demonstrated that Rust Proof oats, the only variety successfully grown 

 here, must be planted in October if maximum results are desired, fin North 

 Carolina they should be sown in September.] Cotton cannot be removed 

 in time for this crop, while corn can ; hence this metathesis of crops. This 

 rotation was adopted with and without fertilizers. It was begun in 1889. 

 Three parallel strips, one-half acre wide and two acres long, were selected 

 for the experiments. The eastern half of each was manured regularly with a 

 fertilizer adapted to the crop, while the western half remains without fertil- 

 izer. The oats in the foregoing fertilized plat were fertilized with the Sta- 

 tion's grain fertilizer at rate of 200 pounds of cotton seed meal 



