108 



HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION 



[Jan. 



These results require little coinment. A study of the 

 figures shows that it is the nitrate of soda chiefly which 

 causes an increase in the crop. Alone and in every combi- 

 nation it gives a large increase. It should be remembered, 

 in estimating the significance of these figures, that the field 

 was seeded last spring, and that accordingly the crop was 

 comparatively small. The eflect of the fertilizers will un- 

 doubtedly become more pronounced another season, when 

 both grass and clover are fully established. It is especially 

 noteworthy that nitrate of soda alone applied to a plot which 

 has now received no other fertilizer for twelve years gives a 

 crop of hay amounting to cdmost II4 tons. This plot last 

 year gave a crop of corn at the rate of something less than 14 

 bushels per acre. The p>lot to which muriate of p)otash alone 

 has been applied during the past tivelve years gave us last 

 year a yield of coim at the rate of nearly 50 bushels per acre. 

 The hay crop this year is 1,140 pounds. These comparisons, 

 bringing out the diff'ering effects of the same fertilizer on the 

 same field for diff"erent crops, and still other comparisons 

 which might be made, illustrate in a striking manner the fact 

 that the selection of fertilizers for our average soils should 

 be made chiefly with reference to the crop. 



All plots in this field were evenly seeded with a mixture 

 of grass and clover seeds, sown crosswise, to insure even 

 seeding of all plots. Both grass and clover seeds came up 

 well, and the clover was thick at the start on all plots. At 

 the present time there is practically no clover on any of 

 the plots except the four to which potash has been applied 

 and the one to which manure has been yearly applied. 



Soil Test with Onions (JVorth Acre) . 

 This experiment is upon the land occupied last year in a 

 similar soil test with onions. The field has been employed 

 in soil test work for eleven years, the several plots having 



