Amherst, Mass., Nov. 18, 1901. 

 T. R. Hill, Secretary Hampshire Agricultural Society, 



Dear Sir: — I beg to transmit herewith reports on experiments with 

 field crops submitted by Mr. Charles L. Comins of North Amherst. 

 Mr. Comins tried one experiment each with potatoes, onions and corn, 

 and I recommend that he be awarded a first prize for each. 



In commenting upon these experiments your committee would in the 

 first place call attention to the fact that the soil selected by Mr. Comins 

 for these experiments had been recently rather heavily manured with 

 both barnyard manure and Canada wood ashes. The soil was accord- 

 ingly in somewhat too high a condition of fertility to make it probable 

 that the effect of the fertilizers would be very marked. This is made 

 evident by the statement of the yields on plot 3 which was left without 

 manure in the experiments with potatoes and corn, viz. at the rate of 

 one hundred ninety-seven and a fraction bushels of merchantable pota- 

 toes and forty bushels of shelled corn. The onion crop was excessively 

 small on all plots. The onion crop of the valley for the past year has 

 as a rule been small as the crop suffered from blight. It may be 

 doubted whether any of the fertilizers produced a normal effect on this 

 crop, 



THE EXPERIMENT WITH POTATOES. 



In the experiment with potatoes the several plots -^^ acre each 

 received an application of fertilizers as follows : 



Plot 1, nitrate of soda, 8 pounds ; dissolved bone-black, 16 pounds. 



Plot 2, nitrate of soda, 8 pounds ; high grade sulfate of potash, 8 

 pounds. 



Plot 3, nothing. 



Plot 4, dissolved bone black, 16 pounds; high grade sulfate of potash, 

 8 pounds. 



Plot 5, nitrate of soda, 8 pounds ; dissolved bone-black, 16 pounds ; 

 high grade sulfate of potash, 8 pounds. 



The cost of the fertilizers applied to plot 1 was 36 cents. The crop 

 is practically identical with the crop on the plot which received no fer- 

 tilizer. 



The fertilizer applied to plot 2 cost 40 cents. The increase in crop 

 as compared with 3 was worth 75 cents. Here is an apparent profit in 



