178 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



1895, rye; in 1896, beans; in 1897 we tried to grow 

 onions, but finally grew white mustard, which was plowed 

 in, — that being the only crop that has been plowed in 

 during this time. The next year, 1898, we grew corn ; in 

 1899, corn again. In the spring of 1900 the land was 

 seeded to mixed grass and clover, and was cut once that 

 year; in 1901 two crops were cut; and this year the land, 

 having been plowed last fall, was put into corn again ; so 

 we have had in all six corn crops during the fourteen years. 



Now, the results for the corn crops are, as you can 

 plainly see by the exhibit, very striking. The land on the 

 plots marked " nothing" had no fertilizer in fourteen years ; 

 that land is so poor that it bears somewhere about 8 or 10 

 bushels of corn to the acre. I would call your attention to 

 the fact that undoubtedly even that is an overestimate of 

 the corn ; but I have adopted one uniform rule in figuring 

 for all the plots, — I Aveighed the corn three weeks after it 

 was husked, and allowed 90 pounds to the bushel. I don't 

 suppose that the corn crops on these four " nothing" crops, 

 when we weigh it after shelling, will amount to more than 

 2 or 3 bushels to the acre. The use of muriate of potash 

 alone, through fourteen years, gives us a crop this year — 

 a poor corn year — of almost 50 bushels ; I call that nothing 

 less than remarkable. I would not have believed that any 

 such result would follow. If you will observe the exhibit, 

 you will see that on those plots where potash has been used 

 there is a good crop of corn, and no crop on those where it 

 has not been used, — excepting, of course, the manure 

 plot. 



The influence of nitrate of soda and dissolved bone-black 

 seems to have been very small indeed. The one fertilizer 

 which has paid for itself over and over again on that land, 

 for corn particularly, is the potash. Now, don't go away 

 thinking that I believe that potash is the only fertilizer 

 element we need to make our fields productive. I find 

 with most of our land it is not right to consider the bald 

 question, What docs the land need? The land does not 

 need anything, but it is what you need to put on your land 

 to raise the crop ; and it is not the same for all crops, and 



