250 



SOILS 



and in every field for your leading money-crop or crops. 

 It is necessary, then, for you to make a test that you may 

 know what is demanded in way of an artificial manure 

 for your soil. 



Suppose you try this plan : Lay off six plots each plot 

 to be one rod wide and eight rods long one-twentieth of 

 an acre in area. In the field your experiment would show 

 a sctieme like this : 



Apply the fertilizers broadcast and harrow in length- 

 wise that no part of them may be dragged over onto an- 

 other plot. I find it advisable to mix fertilizers with dry 

 dirt when small quantities are used that a more even dis- 

 tribution may be secured. 



If such a test is made with corn, be careful to treat all 

 plots alike in cultivation, and this cultivation should be 

 similar in nature to that given the remainder of the field. 

 A careful observation of plots during the growing season, 

 coupled with an estimate at harvest, should enable you 

 to use fertilizers with some knowledge of their value, if 

 such is shown by the test. The results cannot fail to be 

 helpful in deciding what kinds of plant food your land 

 needs, and in what quantity each element is needed. 



The quantity you shall use. No hard and fixed rule 

 can be given as to the quantity of the fertilizer you shall 



