340 Fertilizers 



of consecutive years. 1 They lead to the conclusion 

 that "there is no 'best' tobacco fertilizer, or 'best' 

 formula for all seasons, even on the same soil. A for- 

 mula or a form of plant-food which in one season gives 

 the leaf a somewhat better quality than any other may, 

 perhaps the next year and on the same soil, prove inferior 

 to others, for reasons which can only be surmised. 



"Nevertheless, by comparing the effects of these 

 fertilizers for a term of years, it appears that certain 

 ones are, on the whole and generally speaking, more 

 likely to impart a perfectly satisfactory quality to the 

 leaf than certain others. 



"It is doubtless true of tobacco, as of other crops, 

 that the liberal but not greatly excessive supply of readily 

 available plant-food yearly required to insure a paying 

 crop may be given in a variety of forms with equally 

 good results, on the average of one season with another, 

 and that, indeed, occasional changes in the form of nitro- 

 gen and potash supplied may be a distinct advantage, 

 avoiding always any considerable quantity of those 

 things, as chlorin, and sulfuric or other free acids, which 

 experience has shown may damage the leaf." 



These conclusions in regard to the kind and quantity 

 of fertilizing constituents required for the growing of 

 tobacco of good quality confirm those arrived at by 

 experiments elsewhere, and the suggestions made are 

 sufficiently definite to guide in the use of fertilizers 

 for this crop. In brief, therefore, the tobacco crop 

 must be provided with an abundance of all of the fer- 

 tilizer elements derived from readily available forms, 

 and free from those constituents known to exercise an 



1 Connecticut Agr. Exp. Sta. Annual Report, 1897, Part IV, 

 page 255. 



