1900.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 15 



every combination it proves highly beneficial. That this 

 soil after eleven years' continuovs application of muriate of 

 potash, at the rate of 160 pounds per acre annually should be 

 capable after liming of producing corn at the rate of 49. 75 

 bushels of shelled grain per acre, is astonishing. 



3. The crop, amounting to almost 60 bushels shelled corn 

 per acre, on the plot which now for eleven years has yearly 

 received only dissolved bone-black and muriate of potash 

 (lime this year of course excepted) and which in this long 

 period of time has received no addition of nitrogen in the 

 form of manure or fertilizers, illustrates the remarkable ex- 

 tent to which, in our climate, the corn plant can thrive upon 

 the natural stores of this element in the soil and that which 

 it accumulates as a result of the introduction of clover into 

 the rotation. 



4. It will be noticed that where the elements nitrogen, 

 phosphoric acid and potash have been yearly supplied, the 

 crop this year, amounting to about 73 bushels per acre, is 

 within three bushels of that produced where manure at the 

 rate of 5 cords per acre has been annually applied. The 

 fertilizers used (nitrate of soda, 160 pounds ; dissolved 

 bone-black, 320 pounds ; and muriate of potash, 160 pounds 

 per acre) cost about $10 ; while the manure, if purchased, 

 would cost $25 at least in most parts of the State. It should 

 be pointed out, however, that this soil has almost perfect 

 physical characteristics. On the one hand, its perfect drain- 

 age insures freedom from excessive moisture even in wet 

 seasons ; and, on the other, the happy mean existing in the 

 proportion of fine and coarse particles insures good water- 

 conducting power (capillarity), and thus prevents injury 

 from drought and injurious crust formation. In such a soil 

 the organic matter furnished by manure is far less necessary 

 than in those which are either more sandy or more clayey. 

 For these reasons, fertilizers have doubtless made a more 

 favorable showing as compared with manure than would 

 usually be the case. The table shows the relative standing 

 of the two plots, 7 (manure) and 14 (complete fertilizer), 

 for the entire period of eleven years. It will be seen that 

 the financial outcome where the fertilizer has been used is 

 much better than for the plot receiving manure. 



