the use of fertilizers of 35 cents per plot, which is at the rate of $14 

 per acre. 



The fertilizers applied to plot 4 cost 36 cents. The increase in crop 

 is worth 51 cents, a profit of 15 cents, which is at the rate of $6.00 

 per acre. 



The fertilizer applied to plot 5 cost 56 cents. The increase in the 

 crop was worth 55 cents. There is, accordingly, no profit. 



The comparison of the yields on the different plots and the calculated 

 financial results discloses the fact that the potash only in these experi- 

 ments appears to have proven beneficial. Only on plots where potash 

 was used is there an increase sufficient, to cover the cost of the fertil- 

 izers ; and this cost was not quite covered on plot 5 where two appar- 

 ently useless materials (nitrate and bone-black) were added to the 

 potash. 



EXPERIMENT WITH ONIONS. 



The plots in this experiment were of the same area as those in the 

 experiment with corn and the use of the fertilizer was the same. 



The crops on all the plots, as previously stated, were very small, 

 amounting, even in case of the best plot, to only about 125 bushels of 

 good onions per acre, it therefore seems hardly worth while to discuss 

 the results in detail. The results, so far as they go, appear to indicate 

 considerable benefit as a result of the use of nitrate of soda for only 

 where this was employed did the crop materially exceed that produced 

 on the plot which received no fertilizers. Mr. Comins calls attention to 

 the unfavorable mechanical condition of the surface of the soil on plot 

 4, which condition he states existed also to a^considerable degree on 

 plot 5, and he states that he believes this condition was caused by the 

 bone-black and potash. I incline to the belief that this condition must 

 have been due to causes unconnected with the fertilizers used. Among 

 the fertilizers used the nitrate of soda is the only one which would have 

 any considerable tendency to cause the formation of a crust. Had this 

 formation of a crust on plot 4 been due to the influence of the fertilizers 

 it would without doubt have been greater on plot 2 than on any of the 

 others for the reason that the dissolved bone-black tends rather to pre- 

 vent than to increase the probability of crust formation, while the potash 

 would not be equally useful in that direction. Crust formation if due to 

 fertilizers then must I believe have been most noticeable on plot 2. I 



