41 



tilizer furnishing nitrogen has been applied. That the grasses 

 o:in do this, however, has been shown both at Amherst and by 

 the work of nuiiierons experimenters in other parts of tlie 

 United States and in Enrope. 



The limed jiortion of one plot npon the Experiment Sta- 

 tion gronnds last season, which had been annnallj mannred 

 with dissolved bone-black and mnriate of potash for fifteen 

 years, and the greater part of the time at the rates respec- 

 tively, bone-black 320 and mnriate of potash IGO ponnds per 

 acre, gave the following yields: hay, first cnt, at the rate of 

 3,600 ponnds per acre ; rowen, second cnt, at the rate of 

 2,575 ponnds per acre. 



Here was a total crop — and on soil, by the way, which is 

 not typical grass land — at the rate of rather more than 3 

 tons per acre, at an annnal fertilizer cost, covering the bone- 

 black and muriate of potash, of abont $5.50 per acre. The 

 land, however, has been limed twice during the fifteen years, 

 at a cost for each liming of abont $6 or -$7 per acre. We 

 have, then, an annnal cost for lime at the rate of abont $1 

 per acre, making the total annnal cost of the fertilizers nsed 

 about $0.50. Eor this small expenditure w^e have a croj) in 

 the fifteenth year of rather over 3 tons. In the same field 

 w^e have a similar plot, to which the same quantities of dis- 

 solved-bone-black, mnriate of potash and lime are annually 

 applied, and in addition nitrate of soda at the rate of 160 

 pounds per acre. Here the two crops last year amounted to 

 7,600 pounds of well-made hay. We have thus an increase 

 of some 1,500 pounds of hay as the result of the employ- 

 ment of 160 pounds of nitrate of soda, which would cost 

 about $4. The use of the nitrate in addition to the bone- 

 black and potash, therefore, is clearly profitable. It will be 

 asked, however, Whence comes the nitrogen required by the 

 grasses, where the dissolved bone-black, muriate of potash 

 and lime annually are used ? The answer undoubtedly is, 

 From decaying clover roots and stubble. Clover thrives under 

 this system of manuring. It draws nitrogen freely from the 

 air. The clovers, however, are not long-lived plants. On 

 their death and decay the nitrogen wdiich had become a part 

 of their tissues becomes available to the grasses which fol- 



