Jan. 1923] annual report 17 



a. With raw rock phosphate and gypsum. 



b. With acid phosphate. 



c. With nitrate of soda, raw rock and gypsum. 



d. With nitrate of soda and acid phosphate. 



e. No treatment. 



The tiers of plots number 1 and 4 were seeded to oats, clover, timothy 

 and red top in the spring of 1921. The oats were cut in 1921. The tiers 

 of plots numbers 2 and 3 were seeded to cover crops as given in the outline 

 of treatment of plots. The cover crops were plowed in during August, and 

 the tiers of plots numbers 2 and 3 were seeded to rye and winter vetch. In 

 the spring of 1922 the rye and vetch was plowed in, and the plots were seeded 

 to oats, clover, timothy and red top. Because the season was marked bj- 

 an unusual amount of rainfall, the date of seeding was delayed materially. 

 In the summer of 1922 the hay was cut on the tiers of jjlots mmibers 1 and 

 4 and the air dry weight determined. The results are rather irregular pos- 

 sibly due to the unusual amount of rainfall; and the probable errors are too 

 large to draw conclusions relative to the different mineral fertilizer treat- 

 ments. All of the mineral fertilizer treatments, however, gave decidedly 

 larger yields than the no-fertilizer treatments; and the yield of all of the plots 

 was much higher than the yield of untreated plots taken from land adjacent 

 to the experimental plots. The average yields for the plots of the different 

 treatments ranged from 2124 pounds per acre for no fertilizer to 2724 pounds 

 per acre with mineral fertilizer, while the yield of tlio adjacent land was only 

 335 pounds per acre. 



A similar series of tests was begun on a second two-acre tract in the fall 

 of 1921. The second tract is a heavy clay soil, low lying, which has not been 

 plowed or fertilized for more than forty years. On account of the wet weather 

 it was impossible to continue the test on this tract of land according to. the 

 plan, but it was seeded with rye late in the fall of 1922. At the present time 

 there is a good stand of rye, and it is planned to continue this during the 

 coming year according to plans except that the schedule of treatments will 

 be one year later. 



Potash Tests on Potatoes. 



For several years the College Farm has manured its potato ground at the 

 rate of 16 spreader loads to the acre and supplemented this manure with 

 1200 lbs of a 4-8-4 fertilizer made up of nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, 

 tankage, acid phosphate, and muriate of potash. 



In order to secure data on the effects of both less and larger amounts of 

 potash, quarter-acre plots were laid, off across the field, on each of which 6 

 rows of potatoes were planted. While the data is for one year only and 

 therefore not conclusive, the indications are that the larger amounts of pot- 

 ash formerly used are not necessary with reasonable applications of stable 

 manure. 



Top-dressing Hay Land. 



As a continuation of some former experiments in top-dressing grass land, 

 six one-quarter acre plots were laid out last spring by Mr. Taylor on a piece 

 of clay meadow which had been seeded down in 1919. The hay, which 



