1896.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 133 



4. Field Experiments to ascertain the Influence of 

 Different Mixtures of Commercial Fertilizers 

 ON the Yield and General Character of Sev- 

 eral Prominent Garden Crops. 

 The area devoted to the above-stated experiment is 198 

 feet long and 183 feet wide ; it is subdivided into six plats 

 of uniform size {S9^ by 62 feet, or about one-eighth of an 

 acre each). The plats are separated from each other and 

 from the adjoining cultivated fields by a space of 5 feet of 

 unmanured and unseeded yet cultivated land. They are 

 arranged in two parallel rows, running from west to east. 

 Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are along the north side of the field, begin- 

 ning with No. 1 at its west end, while plats Nos. 4, 5 and 6 

 are located along its south side, beginning with Plat 4 on the 

 west end. The soil is several feet deep, and consists of a 

 light, somewhat gravelly loam, and was in a fair state of 

 productiveness when assigned for the experiment here under 

 consideration. The entire field occupied by the experiment 

 is nearly on a level. Potatoes and a variety of forage crops 

 had been raised upon it in preceding years. The manure 

 applied since 1885 has consisted exclusively of fine-ground 

 bone and muriate of potash, annually, 600 pounds of the 

 former and 200 pounds of the latter per acre. 



The observation with raising garden crops, by the aid of 

 different mixtures of commercial manurial substances, here 

 under special consideration, began upon plats Nos. 4, 5 and 

 6 during the spring of 1891, and upon plats 1, 2 and 3 dur- 

 ing that of 1892. 



The difference of the fertilizers applied consisted in the 

 circumstance that different forms of nitrogen and potash were 

 used for their preparation. All plats received essentially the 

 same quantity of nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid, and 

 every one of them received its phosphoric acid in the same 

 form, namely, dissolved bone-black. Some plats received 

 their nitrogen supply in the form of organic animal matter, 

 dried blood ; others in the form of sodium nitrate, Chili salt- 

 petre ; others in the form of ammonium sulphate. Some 

 plats received their potash in the form of muriate of potash 

 (plats 1, 2, 3), and others (plats 4, 5, 6) in the form of the 



