184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



spondence from all who would like to get some of this mate- 

 rial. The more we import, the lower the cost connected 

 with handling it will be. Let me know what you want, and 

 Ave will make up an order and get it here in ample season, 

 and, unless your conditions are different from ours, you will 

 be satisfied with your use of this material. 



I should subscribe to most of Dr. Wheeler's formulas 

 as a result of my own experience ; l)ut I would like to 

 say something in connection with his formula for potatoes. 

 Potatoes are a very important crop, and so I speak of that 

 particularly. I believe that all of you who are growing 

 crops on soils of medium loam or heavy character would 

 do well to use high-grade sulfate of potash, instead of the 

 muriate. You will get more potatoes by using this, as we 

 do at Amherst, and of better cooking quality. We have 

 tried this some ten or twelve different times, extending 

 through the past dozen years, and with very rare exceptions 

 have succeeded. Those exceptions were in very dry years. 

 The sulfate has given us better potatoes, usually 2 per cent 

 more starch in them. 



Question. What is the additional cost? 



Professor Brooks. Only a little. We use 225 pounds to 

 an acre, and the difference makes only 60 or 65 cents differ- 

 ence, — what you put on an acre. It is an insignificant 

 amount, when we consider we have sometimes obtained 30 

 bushels more from the sulfate than from the muriate. 



What farmer that keeps stock does not wish to grow clover? 

 If you wish to grow clover, you would do well to use sulfate 

 of potash, instead of muriate. Some years we have obtained 

 as good results with muriate, but those are apt to be dry 

 years ; in a year where the rainfall is normal, or inclined 

 to be excessive, we get more from sulfate. Dr. Wheeler 

 would tell you, and I agree with him, if the soil contains 

 more lime, the results of muriate would compare more than 

 sulfate. But the use of muriate leads to a greater loss of 

 lime, and lime costs, as does everything else we put on the 

 land ; and so, if you can use the sulfate, you therefore cause 

 a less loss of this valuable constituent out of the soil, and 

 when you reckon by the acre it amounts to quite a little. 



