432 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



however, must be used in somewhat larger quantities; and the writer 

 would suggest as suitable for most cases basic slag meal 800 pounds 

 and high-grade sulfate of potash 200 pounds, though these amounts 

 may, of course, wisely be varied to some extent according to the crop 

 which precedes the clovers. What materials it will be best to use for 

 the purpose of supplying the needed nitrogen for the preceding crop, 

 and in what quantities, it is impossible to say without knowledge as 

 to what that preceding crop is to be. If corn, only moderate quantities 

 of nitrogen would be required, and this may wisely be furnished in 

 materials furnishing this element in forms varying in availability. As 

 a rule, the needed nitrogen may wisely be obtained by a combination 

 of nitrate of soda, tankage and possibly raw bone meal ; and for corn , 

 in the proportion of about one part of nitrate to three of tankage and 

 two or three of bone meal. The total quantities of these materials 

 which it will be profitable to use for corn in connection with slag and 

 potash must vary widely with the condition of the soil. Six hundred 

 pounds of a mixture with the different materials in the proportions 

 indicated will ordinarily be sufficient. All these materials, nitrate, 

 tankage, bone, meal, slag meal and potash, may be mixed after the 

 land is plowed, spread broadcast and harrowed in. 



Fertilizers for Clovers in Permanent Mowings. 

 To get permanent mowings to produce hay composed largely of 

 clovers, it will be wise to depend chiefly upon the fertilizers which 

 have been under consideration. Basic slag meal or bone meal should 

 be mainly depended upon as sources of phosphoric acid, and lime and 

 either the high-grade sulfate or low-grade sulfate of potash as the 

 source of potash. Excellent crops can be produced by a combination 

 in suitable amounts of these materials alone, and the clover will com- 

 prise a larger proportion of the product if they be used without mate- 

 rials which will supply nitrogen. On the college farm at Amherst crops 

 of hay rich in clover have been produced year after year by an annual 

 top-dressing composed of a mixture of basic slag meal 500 pounds, and 

 either high-grade sulfate of potash 150 pounds or low-grade sulfate of 

 potash 300 pounds per acre. The product under this annual system 

 of top-dressing shows fairly good grass, with a bottom full of white 

 clover which grows with remarkable luxuriance and attains unusual 

 size. The fields thus top-dresSed contain also many plants of the red 

 clovers. These in the crop of the past year seem to be more abundant 

 where the high-grade sulfate of potash was used than where the low 

 grade had been applied. Basic slag meal is not yet common in our 

 markets. If it be found difficult or impossible to obtain it, bone meal 

 may be substituted for it ; but it is not likely that it will permanently 

 hold the land in a condition so favorable for clover as the slag meal, 

 for it does not contain lime in so large proportion. The bone meal, 

 however, furnishes a small amount of nitrogen, and this fact may 

 render it somewhat more favorable for grass than is the slag meal. 



