AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 21 



This is a question that should be more apparent after another year or two 

 of experimenting. 



Yields of potatoes in the placement test were at variance with pre- 

 vious results. In 1942, there was apparentlv no advantage in drilling fer- 

 tilizer, as that which w^as broadcast gave slightlv better results than other 

 placement methods. This fact agrees ^\•ith work done in other years and 

 in other trials, and while there is an apparent advantage from banding, 

 there is an occasional >'ear when this is not the case. The 1942 season 

 happened to be such a year. 



The three-year-average yields for the fertilizer placement test on this 

 field follow: 



Method of placing fertilizer 



Broadcast 



N & K broadcast, P drilled 

 N broadcast, P & K drilled 

 All banded 



Even with the seeminglv adverse results in 1942, when potatoes 

 grown by broadcasting fertilizer outyielded those in an>' other treatment 

 by 28 bushels per acre, the three-year av^erage still shows an advantage for 

 banding with the planter. 



Three rotations are in progress on this field, and soil studies are be- 

 ing run coincidentally with the fertilizer work. These rotations repre- 

 sent potatoes continuously with no cover crop, and also in a two- and in 

 a four-year rotation. Cover crops are being utilized in the two-year ro- 

 tation. Soil structure studies and organic matter determinations will be 

 made on samples collected at the beginning and at the end of a five-year 

 period. 



The department of Agricultural and Biological Chemistrv grew pota- 

 toes in the greenhouse at three different levels of available calcium. With 

 the particular soil used, applications of gypsum did not sie^nificantlv in- 

 crease the potato yield. Evidently there was enough available calcium in 

 the soil of the check pots to satisfy requirements. 



F. S. Prince, P. T. Blood, G. P. Percival 



A Dairy Farm Rotation Experiment in Southern 

 New Hampshire with Sweet Corn as a Cash Crop 



This project was continued during 1942 and the findings were re- 

 ported in an Experiment Station circular now available for distribution. 

 Deductions from the circular appear below in way of summary. 



Larger yields of sweet corn were produced with manure, properly 

 supplemented, than with fertilizers alone, although the amount of plant 

 food actually applied in the manure treatments was much greater. 



Amounts of fertilizer up to 1000 pounds per acre were found to be 

 profitable in this test, where no mamu'e Mas used. The fertilizers used 

 were of the 4-8-4 and the 4-16-4 formulas. Larger amounts were not 

 tried, but M'ith sweet corn values at $20 a ton, or more, at canning fac-. 

 tories, or on market-garden farms with corn at more than ten cents a 

 dozen, more fertilizer than this can safelv^ be recommended. 



