1916.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 37a 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



E. F. GASKILL. 



In reporting the work of the agricultural department for the 

 past year the plan generally adopted by the department for 

 presenting the experimental data has been followed. As stated 

 in earlier reports the experimental work of this department has 

 dealt largely with various phases of the question of soil fertility. 

 It was early recognized that results obtained in such work for 

 one, two or three years would be of little value because of the 

 favorable or unfavorable effect of a wet or a dry season on crop 

 production; therefore, many of the experiments have continued 

 over a long period of years. It has not been the custom to 

 report the work in detail each year, but to mention only a few 

 of the more important results for the year. Each report may, 

 therefore, be considered a report of progress, and a complete 

 file of the annual reports will present a fairly complete record of 

 the different experiments. 



The work this year has involved the use of 200 field plots, 13 

 orchard plots, 23 pasture plots, 143 closed plots and 389 pots. 



Field A, or the Nitrogen Experiment. 



This is the twenty-sixth year of the experiment which has for 

 its object a study of the relative value as sources of nitrogen of 

 barnyard manure, nitrate of soda, sulfate of ammonia and dried 

 blood. There are 8 plots which receive nitrogen from the fol- 

 lowing sources, and 3 check plots which receive no nitrogen. 

 Barnyard manure is used on 1 plot, nitrate of soda on 2 plots, 

 sulfate of ammonia on 3 plots, and dried blood on 2 plots. All 

 plots receive the same amounts of actual phosphoric acid and 

 actual potash. 



One-half of each plot received in 1913 an application of 

 hydrated lime at the rate of 2 tons per acre. 



