350 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the proportion of phosphoric acid usually found in special corn fer- 

 tilizers is needlessly high, and that the proportion of potash in such 

 fertilizers is often much too low. He is equally convinced that some- 

 what more phosphoric acid than he formerly believed to be essential 

 will prove useful. In the comparisons in question, phosphoric acid is 

 contained in the fertilizers used under the first system at the rate of 

 180 pounds per acre, actual potash at the rate of 77 pounds; in the 

 second combination (richer in potash), phosphoric acid was applied 

 at the rate of only 50 pounds per acre, actual potash at the rate of 125 

 pounds. The writer is now inclined to believe that an increase in the 

 amount of phosphoric acid to a total of about 100 pounds per acre 

 would prove useful. This he believes may wisely be supplied in the 

 form of basic slag meal. The best source of potash, in the writer's opin- 

 ion, is the high-grade or low-grade sulfate. It is true the muriate might 

 give an equally good crop of corn, but on many soils and in many 

 seasons at least, the clover in the succeeding hay crop will make a less 

 satisfactory showing than where one of the sulfates is used. He is 

 inclined to recommend, therefore, a fertilizer application for corn at 

 the following rates per acre : — 



Pounds. 



Nitrate of soda, 100 



Sulfate of ammonia, . . . . . • • .100 



Tankage, or dry ground fish, ...... 200 



Basic slag meal, ........ 500 



High-grade sulfate of potash, 200 to 250 



In the experiments to which reference has been made, the manure 

 employed has always been spread after plowing, and deeply worked 

 in by the use of the disc harrow. Fertilizers have in all cases been 

 applied broadcast after plowing, and harrowed in; and, wherever the 

 soil is in a fair condition of fertility, it is the writer's belief that these 

 methods of application are likely to prove most satisfactory. Hill or 

 drill application of fertilizers may, on the other hand, prove desirable 

 if the fertility of the field is relatively low. 



There is, of course, a possible question whether such results as have 

 been obtained in the fields referred to in Amherst will be obtained 

 under a similar system of using manures and fertilizers in other parts 

 of the State; but the experiments of the writer with corn in different 

 parts of the 'State tend to show that, while the rather liberal use of 

 potash salts which has been recommended may not prove in all cases 

 equally beneficial in other localities as in Amherst, they will never- 

 theless in the majority of instances prove distinctly beneficial. Of the 

 three fertilizer elements, potash, nitrogen and phosphoric acid, potash 

 on the average in the experiments in different parts of the State has 

 increased the corn crop much more than either of the other elements. 

 In a series of experiments conducted in 1890, thirteen fertilizer experi- 

 ments with corn were carried out in different parts of the State, one 

 each in the counties of Essex, Middlesex, Plymouth, Bristol, Barn- 



