Food for u. S.|DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Plants * 



1^^" EXPERIMENT STATION WORK, XII. 



Washington, D. C. 



Farmers' Bulletin No. 105. 



EDITOR W. H. BEAL. 



Prepared in the Office of Experiment Stations. 



A. C. TRUE, Director. 



_^ ... „ Since i8q2 the Massachusetts Hatch 



Fertihzers for c. .• u u j .• • c 



„ , ^ Station has been conducting series or 



Garden Crops. . , , , , ,1 1 j^ / r 



experiments to test the relative value of 



Nitrate of Soda^ sulphate of ammonia, and dried blood, as 

 sources of Nitrogen for different garden crops ; and, at the 

 same time, to make a comparison of muriate with sulphate 

 of potash, when used with each of the three Nitrogenous 

 fertilizers for the same class of crops. Dissolved bone-black 

 was applied equally to all plats from the first. These 

 experiments were continued unvaried until 1897. Sulphate 

 of potash in connection with Nitrate of Soda generally gave 

 the best crop ; in cases where it did not, it gave one but 

 slightly inferior to the best except in the case of one crop, 

 sweet corn, a plant which makes much of its growth in the 

 latter part of the season. Nitrate of Soda in almost every 

 instance proved the most valuable source of Nitrogen, whether 

 used with muriate or sulphate of potash. Sulphate of 

 ammonia and muriate of potash when used together gave 

 the poorest yield in every instance. This result was 

 apparently due to a chemical reaction between these two 

 substances in the soil, resulting in the formation of ammo- 

 nium chlorid, a substance which is injurious to plant growth. 

 Up to 1897, as has been already stated, only chemical 

 fertilizers were used, but in 1898 a change was made in the 

 plan of the experiment. In view of the fact that market 

 gardeners, in whose interest chiefly these experiments were 

 carried out, almost invariably use large quantities of stable 

 manure, and employ commercial fertilizers, if at all, simply 

 to supplement the manure, it was decided to apply equal 

 amounts of thoroughly mixed stable manure to each plat 

 and to use in addition the same fertilizers as before. 

 Further, in order to have the best data for determining 



