1904.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 139 



harrowed in. The kinds and the amounts per acre are as 

 follows : — 



Nitrate of soda, ItiO pounds, furnishing nitrogen. 



Dissolved hone-blaek, IVH) })oun(ls, furnishing jihosphoric acid. 



Muriate of potash, IGO pounds, furnishing potash. 



Land plaster, -400 pounds. 



Lime, 400 pounds. 



Manure, 5 cords. 



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

 This acre has been used in soil tests for fifteen years, begin- 

 ning in 1889. The croi)s 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, 

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

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

 corn crops, and during this time it has been four years in grass. 

 The crop last year was corn, following grass ; this year, corn 

 follows corn. The season was the most unfavorable for this 

 crop Avhich has been known within the lifetime of most men 

 now living, and the crop of this year was exceedingly poor, 

 even on the land which has for fifteen years received an 

 annual application of manure at the rate of 5 cords per acre. 

 Last year, although the season then also was somewhat unfav- 

 orable, this plot gave a 3deld almost double that of this year. 

 It is not surprising, therefore, that the yield on most of the 

 plots receiving fertilizers was very low. Four of the plots 

 have received neither manure nor fertilizer throughout the 

 entire fifteen ^^ears, and these now show a degree of exhaus- 

 tion amounting to almost absolute sterility. Allowing 90 

 pounds of ears as husked to the bushel of shelled grain, the 

 average product of these plots was at the rate of about 1|^ 

 bushels to the acre. The average yield of stover on these 

 plots is at the i-ate of 560 pounds per acre. Tlie table shows 

 the manuring of the several plots, the rate of yield, and the 

 gain or loss per acre compared with the nothing plots : — 



