200 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



3. Field ExrERiMENTS to ascertain the Influence of 

 Different Mixtures of Commercial Fertilizers 

 ON the Yield and General Character of Sev- 

 eral Prominent Garden Crops. 



Field C. 



The area devoted to the above-stated experiment is 189 

 feet lonji: and 164 feet wide; it is siilxlivided into six plats 

 of uniform size (88 by (32 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 five feet of 

 unmanured and unseeded yet cultivated land. They are 

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

 Nos. 1, 2 and 8 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, somew^hat 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. Its past history (since 1885), as far as mode of culti- 

 vation and manuring is concerned, is well known. Ground 

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

 200 pounds of the latter per acre, have been used for more 

 than six years preceding 1891 as general fertilizer. No 

 stable manure of any description has been applied to the field 

 for seven years preceding. General field crops, as grain 

 crops, leguminous plants, potatoes, etc., have been raised 

 upon the grounds in suitable rotation during that period. 



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 

 during that of 1892. The difference of the fertilizers applied 

 consisted in the circumstance that different foi-ms of nitro- 

 gen and i)t)tash were used for their preparation. All ])lats 

 received essentially the same quantity of nitrogen, potash 



