50 



consisted in all cases of mixed grass and clovers. During 

 the fifteen years referred to, the entire field has received two 

 applications of lime, at the rate in each case of 1 ton to the 

 acre. The annual cost of the dissolved bone black and mu- 

 riate of potash applied to this plot has been at the rate of 

 about $5.50 per acre, while the cost of the two applications 

 of lime has been sufficient, spread over the fifteen years, to 

 amount to about $1 per acre annually. The total cost of 

 manuring this land, then, has been at the rate of about $G.50 

 per acre annually. This plot has invariably produced good 

 crops. Its fertility does not appear to have decreased. In 

 1902 it produced shelled corn at the rate of 56 bushels to the 

 acre. Clover has always predominated in the hay crops. The 

 yield of hay (two crops) in 1901 was at the rate of 3,400 

 pounds to the acre. That portion of this field which has not 

 been manured during the fifteen years will at present yield 

 corn at the rate of about 7 bushels of shelled corn per acre, 

 and hay at the rate of about 000 pounds. 



Some of the fields of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 

 lege farm are kept permanently in mowing. A number of 

 acres have not been broken up for about twenty-four years. 

 In 1889, when the writer took charge of these fields, they 

 were producing rather light crops of Kentucky blue grass, 

 much mixed Avith the white daisy. For the last few years 

 these fields have been subdivided into plots, and various com- 

 binations of fertilizers employed. To a considerable area, 

 the annual application per acre is at the rate of basic slag 

 meal 500 pounds, and a potash salt sufficient to furnish 75 

 pounds of actual potash per acre. The areas thus manured 

 have steadily improved under the treatment received. At 

 the start there was but little clover. Under the system of 

 fertilizing followed, the proportion of clover has steadily in- 

 creased. The daisies have almost entirely disappeared, while 

 the grass as well as the clovers, though in less degree, has 

 improved. The annual cost of the fertilizers used amounts 

 to about $7 per acre. The soil of these fields is natural grass 

 land, and is quite well adapted for clovers as well. The prod- 

 uct under this system of manuring ranges from about 2 to 

 2% tons per acre in two crops. During the present season 



