ANNUAL MEETING OHIO STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 77 



shallow, in the fall or in the spring, whether to turn under the clover crop or 

 cut it for hay, whether to apply the manure in the fall or in the spring, and 

 various other problems, depend to a very large extent upon the character of the 

 soil. 



At the meeting of the American Society of Agronomy at Columbus last fall. 

 Dr. Lipman, Director of the New Jersey Experiment Station, said that it was a 

 common practice among the farmers in certain sections of New Jersey to apply 

 the manure in the spring instead of hauling it out on the fields as fast as made, 

 the method pronounced best by practically all the experiment stations. An exam- < 

 ination of the soils in the localities where this practice is common showed them 

 to be of a very sandy nature and leachy character and if the manure had been 

 hauled out in the fall a very large percentage of the fertility would have leached 

 out before it was needed by the crop the next season. On heavy soils such leaching 

 would not take place. This illustrates the necessity of adapting the methods of 

 soil management to the particular soil. 



PROFITABLE AND UNPROFITABLE FERTILIZATION. 



As our soils are becoming more and more depleted by exhaustive methods of 

 farming, the question of fertilization is becoming one of greater and greater im- 

 portance. All soils, however, do not respond equally to the same kind of fertil- 

 izers. Some need lime, some do not; some need phosphorus (most of our Ohio 

 soils probably do), some may not; many may not need potash, some undoubtedly 

 do; some need nitrogen, others have an abundance of this element. 



At Wooster it is only necessary for one to observe the plots in order to see 

 the beneficial effect of lime upon this soil. At Germantown, however, Director 

 Thorne states * "that if lime has produced any effect thus far it has been to re- 

 duce the yield, but the work has not yet been continued long enough to afford con- 

 clusive evidence on this point. At Carpenter the effect of lime is less evident 

 than on the Wooster and Strongsville soils." Most farmers know that the applica- 

 tion of lime to a heavy clay makes it more porous and easily worked, while, under 

 the same treatment, a sand becomes more compact and retentive of moisture. 



As an average of two five-year rotations, consisting of corn, oats, wheat, 

 clover and timothy, at Wooster and Strongsville, an application of 20 pounds 

 of phosphorus, 108 pounds of potassium and 114 pounds of nitrogen gave a 

 net profit of $7.36 per acre at Wooster and a loss of $2.01 at Strongsville. An 

 application of the same amount of phosphorus and potassium on another plot, 

 but 76 instead of 114 pounds of nitrogen, gave a net profit of $12.04 P er acre 

 at Wooster and of $1.64 at Strongsville. In a three-year rotation of corn, 

 wheat and clover an application of 16 1-2 pounds of potash and of 25 1-3 pounds 

 of nitrogen per acre, gave a net loss of 8 cents per acre at Germantown but a 

 gain of $1.07 per acre at Carpenter. An application of 6 2-3 pounds of nitro- 

 gen, 30 pounds of phosphorus, 33 pounds of potassium and 1000 pounds of 

 lime gave a net loss of 54 cents per acre at Germantown and a gain of $3.06 

 per acre at Carpenter. These results show that the application of a certain 

 kind of fertilizer may prove profitable on one soil and unprofitable on an- 

 other. A knowledge of the character of the soil is therefore necessary be- 

 fore anyone can advise most intelligently in regard to the use of fertilizers. 



WHY DOCTORS DISAGREE. 



New York and Massachusetts have been carrying on experiments with fer- 

 tilzers on apple orchards for a number of years. As a result of the New York 

 experiments it is stated *"That the fertilizers have had no sensible effect upon the- 



* Bulletin 182, p. 180, Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. 



