84 ADDRESSES 



Plot 6 of $25. After deducting the cost of the phosphate the net gain per acre 

 in this case has been $4.13 for each ton of yard manure, and $5.00 for each ton 

 of fresh manure, using the valuations previously employed. 



These experiments have been made on small plots of land and the question 

 has been raised whether it would be possible to obtain such yields on large fields. 

 In order to test this matter an experiment was begun eight years ago on four 

 ten-acre fields which have been growing corn, oats, wheat and clover in a 4-year 

 rotation over the same period as the fertilizer experiment first described. The 

 soil lies on the same formation, and probably originally with almost identical 

 natural fertility, but the farm on which this experiment is located had been 

 better handled than the other, and it came "to us in a somewhat higher condition. 



In the treatment of these fields we have aimed to combine the lessons 

 learned from the small plots, and our system has been to apply to the .clover sod 

 during fall and winter a dressing of about 8 to 10 tons of manure per acre, the 

 manure being reenforced by phosphate during accumulation, the phosphate being 

 used either in the form of acid phosphate, or raw phosphate rock, at the rate of 

 about 40 pounds per ton of manure, or one pound per 1,000-pound animal per 

 day. The manure has been plowed under in the spring and the land dressed with 

 lime, our experiments having shown that the use of lime on this land is abso- 

 lutely necessary to the growth of clover as well as to the best yields of other 

 crops. The lime has been used at the rate of one ton of quicklime or two tons 

 of ground limestone per acre, the ground limestone being used during recent 

 years. The oats has received no treatment, but the wheat has received 400 

 pounds per acre of a fertilizer similar in composition to the one used on Plot 

 17 in the experiment first described. The outcome has been an 8-year average 

 yield of corn of 77 bushels per acre, followed by 60 bushels of oats, 36 bushels of 

 wheat and nearly three tons and a half of clover hay, yields probably greater than 

 would have been attained had the land been treated like that on the first farm, by 

 about 47 bushels of corn, 28 of oats, 23 of wheat and two and one-third tons of 

 hay. The annual value of this increase has amounted to $18 per acre, the cost of 

 liming and fertilizing has amounted to $3.50 annually, or $14 for every four- 

 year rotation. The net gain per acre has therefore been over $14, after paying 

 for the lime and fertilizer, a gain equivalent to more than $5.00 for each ton of 

 manure. This outcome shows that we have been able to secure very materially 

 better results on these 10-acre fields than we have reached on the small plots 

 in our special tests, and the reason is simply this that in our plot work each 

 plot is set to answer one question only, whereas in this field work we have com- 

 bined the answers from a multitude of plots and put them into practice in general 

 field culture. 



I wish to call special attention to the fact that in this field work our 8-year 

 average of wheat is far ahead of that of the general average of any of the 

 European countries named. This average has been attained on land that is not 

 above the average of the county in which the farm is located, in natural fertility, 

 and I believe there is no sound reason why an average closely approaching this 

 may not be attained over a large portion of Ohio. Of course this yield is 

 obtained on land that has been thoroughly drained and subjected to systematic 

 rotation of crops, as well as to a treatment planned and executed in the light of 

 modern science; but the methods by which it has been obtained are applicable 

 to every farm in Ohio, and capable of being employed by every farmer, and 

 there are farmers over the state who are beginning to put these methods into 

 practice. 



