KU BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



of everything lie buys and most that he sells, and with petty 

 jealousies and a thousand difficulties in the Avay of organiz- 

 ing and working for common interests, there never was a 

 time in the history of this country when it was more imper- 

 ative that our agricultural interests should have all the pro- 

 tection from fraud which law can afford. 



Soil Tests by Means of Plants and Fertilizers. 



Soil tests by means of chemical manures and plants have 

 been widely advocated for ascertaining the deficiencies of 

 special soils, in order that farmers may not continue to use 

 large amounts of certain fertilizer ingredients unnecessarily, 

 these tests having proved more satisfactory as a means of 

 ascertaining their needs than resort to chemical analysis alone. 



In such tests, the use of potash, phosphoric acid and nitro- 

 gen in suitable combinations has usually been considered 

 sufficient to determine the relative lack of any one of these 

 thr«e soil ingredients. Recent experience at the Rhode 

 Island Experiment Station prompts the belief that even tests 

 conducted in this way may occasionally lead one to draw 

 totall}^ false conclusions as to what applications may i)rove 

 most economical for a given soil, and that satisfactory con- 

 clusions cannot be drawn as to the relative deficiencies of 

 these three ingredients until the soil is first put in proper 

 condition by the application of everything else which it may 

 need for correcting any unsatisfactory chemical or physical 

 condition which may exist. Even at their best, certain of 

 these tests may answer the question for this field and not for 

 that ; they may give one indication the first year and a dif- 

 ferent one later. They may, however, prove highly useful 

 in showing great deficiencies which were not suspected, and, 

 if continued long enough upon the same location, they may 

 indicate about how much of certain soil ingredients is liable 

 to be liberated annually for the support of plants, so that the 

 artificial application may be based thereon. 



System in its Relation to Manuring. 

 What seems to be needed is more system in our agricult- 

 ure, the employment of more definite rotations, and then 

 systematic and long-continued study on the part of our 



