184 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



A. — Soil Test with Com {South Acre). 

 This acre has been used in soil tests for sixteen years, be- 

 ginning in 1889. The crops for 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, 

 white mustard, corn, corn, grass and clover, grass and clover, 

 corn, corn, and corn. Since 1889 this field has, therefore, 

 borne eight corn crops, and during this time it has been four 

 years in grass. The present is the third successive corn 

 crop, these three crops following grass, which occupied the 

 field in 1901. Last season was one of the most unfavorable 

 for corn within the memory of our oldest men. The crop 

 was exceedingly small, even on the land which had annually 

 received an application of manure at the rate of 5 cords 

 per acre. AVith only one exception, previous to last year, 

 the corn crop wherever potash has been applied to the soil 

 in this field has always been good. In 1898 the crop even 

 where potash and other fertilizers had been used was small. 

 This suggested the probable necessity of an addition of lime. 

 The application of lime at the rate of 1 ton to the acre re- 

 stored the productiveness of all the plots to which muriate 

 of potash had been continuously applied. The small crop 

 of last year, in connection with observations on the condi- 

 tion of the soil, led to the conclusion that lime might once 

 more prove useful ; the entire field, therefore, was given a 

 dressing of freshly slacked lime, at the rate of 1 ton per 

 acre. The marked increase in the crop of this j'^ear wher- 

 ever potash was used indicates the correctness of the opinion 

 that lime was needed. The plot where potash was used 

 alone last year gave a yield at the rate of about 15.5 bushels 

 of corn per acre ; this year the product is ahnost three times 

 that amount. Last year the plot to which nitrate of soda 

 and muriate of potash are annually applied gave a yield at 

 the rate of 16.5 bushels per acre ; this year the yield is 47.8 

 bushels. The plot receiving dissolved bone-black and muri- 

 ate of potash, which last year gave a crop of a little less than 

 19 bushels, this year gave a crop of rather over 53 bushels. 

 These facts make it strikingly evident that, in connection 



