122 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



diately following the first rain which fell after it had been 

 made. It is believed that the gain in crop would have been 

 much greater had the rainfall been larger. 



Further experiment is needed to determine what amount 

 of nitrate, if any, it will pay to use; but the opinion is here 

 advanced that probably the most profitaljle application will 

 be found not to exceed about 150 pounds per acre. 



Experiment in Manuring Grass Lands." 

 The system of using wood ashes, ground bone and muriate 

 of potash, and manure in rotation upon grass land has been 

 continued, with two slight modifications. We have three 

 large plots (between two and one-half and four acres each) 

 under this treatment. According to the system followed, 

 each plot receives wood ashes at the rate of 1 ton per acre 

 one year, the next year ground bone 600 pounds and muri- 

 ate of potash 200 pounds per acre, and the third year uianure 

 at the rate of 8 tons. The changes in manuring introduced 

 this year consist, first, in the use of a small quantity of 

 nitrate of soda in connection with the ashes on one plot and 

 with the ground bone and muriate of potash on another. 

 The experiment is further modified to a slight extent by the 

 fact that a little more than one acre on i)lot 1, which contains 

 about four acres, was used for experiment in the application 

 of nitrate of soda for rowen, elsewhere described in this re- 

 port, the nitrate being used at the rate of 150 pounds per 

 acre. Our system of manuring is so planned tliat each year 

 we have one plot under each of the three manurings. The 

 manure is always applied in the fall, the other materials 

 early in the spring. The ashes were put on this year April 

 5, the bone and potash April 16. The nitrate of soda was 

 used with the ashes at the rate of 64 pounds to the acre, and 

 was put on April 17. Nitrate of soda was used on plot 3, 

 with bone and potash in the quantities above named, at the 

 rate of 83 pounds per acre. It was applied April 19. 



Plot 1, which this year received wood ashes and nitrate of 

 soda, gave a yield at the rate of 2.164 tons of hay and 1.326 

 tons of rowen per acre. Plot 2, which w^as top-dressed in 

 the fall of 1899 with manure, yielded hay 1.525 tons and 



