10 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



1. Soil Test with Corn. JVbrwell. 

 This is the second year of soil-test work in this field, the 

 crop last year also being corn. Last year potash was the 

 controlling element ; the result this year is the same. Mu- 

 riate of potash, at the rate of 160 pounds per acre, gives an 

 averao^e increase at the rate of 36.3 bushels of grain and 

 2,203 pounds of stover; nitrate of soda, at the same rate 

 per acre, gives an average increase of 8.3 bushels of grain 

 and 325 pounds of stover ; dissolved bone-black, at the rate 

 of 320 pounds per acre, gives an average increase of 15.3 

 bushels of grain and 455 pounds of stover. Five cords of 

 manure increase the crop by 26.4 bushels of grain and 

 3,450 pounds of stover per acre ; complete fertilizer (ni- 

 trate, dissolved bone-black and potash at above rates) gives 

 an increase of grain 52.5 bushels and stover 2,455 pounds; 

 lime and plaster both produce apparent small increases. 



2. Soil Test ivith Potatoes. Amherst. 

 The field upon which this test was carried out lies upon 

 our own grounds. It has a medium, well-drained loam, and 

 has been seven years in soil-test experiments. The crops 

 in order of succession have been potatoes, corn, soya beans, 

 oats, grass and clover (two years), and cabbages and Swed- 

 ish turnips. This year the phosphoric acid gives the largest 

 average increase in crop, viz., at the rate of 26.6 bushels of 

 merchantable tubers per acre ; nitrogen gives an increase 

 of 11.3 bushels merchantable tubers and potash an increase 

 of 7.2 bushels. The soil, however, is very generally ex- 

 hausted, and no sino-le fertilizer or combination of either 

 two or all three gave a good crop. The apparent supe- 

 riority of the phosphoric acid and nitrogen is chiefly due to 

 the fact that the plot to which those two elements alone 

 were applied was for some reason (not believed to be the 

 eff*ect of the fertilizer alone) nearly twice as great as that 

 upon any other plot. Had the crop where the potash was 

 added to the nitrogen and phosphoric acid been better or 

 even as good as that where the phosphoric acid and nitrogen 

 alone were used, we should be justified in the conclusion 



