154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



time there is no reason for the l)elief that corn can do it. 

 This is true, however, — and this makes corn one of the 

 most valuable of our crops, — that it is capal^le of making a 

 good crop with a relatively small application of nitrogen 

 through the soil. 



Mr. BowitER. Take the original formula of 77 pounds of 

 nitrogen, 31 pounds of phosphoric acid and 80 pounds of pot- 

 ash. We found, by carrying that on for a number of years, 

 that 77 pounds of nitrogen would throw the corn all to 

 stover, with no seed. We gradually reduced the nitrogen 

 until we got it down to 4 per cent, increasing the phosphoric 

 acid and increasing the potash, and the result was we grew 

 better corn with the less nitrooen than we did with the laro-er 

 amount, showing that the corn evidently assimilated the ni- 

 trogen from some other source. If through the air or soil, 

 that is one way ; or through the leaves, that is another way. 

 I think the corn crop is a great gatherer of nitrogen ; not so 

 much as clover, hoAvever. But I believe in New York State, 

 where they have snows, a blanket, to cover the clover, they 

 ought to grow it ; but otherwse it is a speculation, as it is 

 on the Barre hills. I question whether we had not better 

 stick to corn. 



Professor Brooks. No man can outdo me in my admira- 

 tion for the corn crop ; but there is no evidence — and this is 

 the point — to which anj^ one can point that corn is able to 

 make use of nitrogen from the air. It stands out more and 

 more clearly, the more I experiment, that corn is capable in a 

 very unusual degree of making use of the natural stores of 

 nitrogen in the soil. This is connected, I think, without 

 any doubt with the season when it takes its growth. None 

 of our soils are so poor but they contain considerable organic 

 nitrogen ; and corn makes its growth by drawing upon the 

 natural resources of the soil, but there is no evidence that it 

 can draw from the air. It is true that it can l)e grown by 

 applying very little nitrogen in the shape of manure to the 

 soil. I could take you to a plot in Amherst where for nine- 

 teen years we have applied annually only muriate of potash 

 and a phosphate. That field was in corn in 1903, at which 

 time it had not had any nitrogen whatever applied to it for 



