128 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



usually in the same amounts. These experiments are not 

 calculated to secure the production of heavy crops, but are 

 designed rather to throw light upon the general question as 

 to how the different crops should be manured for the most 

 profitable results. The fertilizers are so applied that it 

 • becomes possible to determine with much accuracy the effects 

 of each of the leading elements of plant food. Every fertil- 

 izer used, whether applied by itself or in connection with one 

 or both of the other fertilizer materials, is always applied 

 in the same quantities. Fertilizers and manures are always 

 applied broadcast after ploughing, and harrowed in. The fol- 

 lowing table shows the kinds and usual amounts per acre : — 



Nitrate of soda, 160 pounds, furnishing nitrogen. 



Dissolved bone-black, 320 pounds, furnishing phosphoric acid. 



Muriate of potash, 160 pounds, furnishing potash. 



Land plaster, 400 pounds. • • 



Linae, 400 pounds. 



Manure, 5 cords. 



A. — Soil Test ivith Corn {South Acre), Amherst. 



This acre has been used in soil tests for fourteen years, 

 beginning in 1889. The crops in successive years have 

 been as follows: corn, corn, oats, grass and clover, grass 

 and clover, corn (followed by mustard as a catch crop), rye, 

 soy beans, Avhite mustard, corn, corn, grass and clover, 

 grass and clover, and this year corn once more. Since 1889 

 this field has therefore borne six corn crops, and during this 

 time it has been four years in grass. 



It will be noticed that the crop last year was grass. The 

 sod was turned on April 12. The land was thoroughly 

 harrowed, twice before sowing the fertilizer and once after. 

 The variety of corn was Sibley's Pride of the North. It 

 was planted in drills, 31^ feet apart, on May 22. The sea- 

 son was cold and unfavorable to corn, but in spite of this 

 fact the crop made very good growth upon the four plots to 

 which potash has been j^early applied and upon the plot 

 which has been yearly manured. Four of the plots in this 

 field have received no manure nor fertilizer thi'oughout the 

 entire fourteen j-ears, and these show a high degree of ex- 

 haustion, — indeed, these produced scarcely any sound 



