Feb., 1926] PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS 39 



SOILS 



Soil Fertility Studies {Hatch and Purnell Funds) 



The question of the best methods of getting old worn-out hay lands 

 into profitable production is one of the most pressing that confronts the 

 Experiment Station. One series of plots for the purpose of observing 

 the effects of different fertilizer treatments and green manures was 

 started at Durham in 1920, and has now been in hay for three years. 



With the possibility of a more complete study as the result of the 

 availability of the Purnell Fund, it was decided to start three new experi- 

 ments, one with grass, one with legumes and one with rotations. As 

 there is little typical land on the College farm, either worn-out or uniform 

 enough for the work, these experiments are to be located in other parts 

 of the state. 



About fifty farms in Rockingham County were visited before selecting 

 a field belonging to Mrs. Sarah Whenal, Greenland, N. H., on the Break- 

 fast Hill road. This has been leased for six years with the renewal 

 privilege. The field contains about eight acres in all, seven of which will 

 be used for experimental purposes. 



Sixty-three plots for the grass experiment were surveyed, and laid out 

 and sampled for a Truog Test and for a complete chemical analysis by 

 F. S. Prince and T. G. Phillips. Fifty-one of these plots were then 

 plowed and prepared for seeding, the other twelve being left for check 

 plots upon former methods. On«-third of the plowed plots were limed 

 at the rate of two tons, and one-third at the rate of four tons per acre. 

 The other part was left unlimed. Twenty-four of the plowed plots were 

 manured. The manure and lime applications will be made but once in 

 a five-year period. Annual top-dressings will be made on certain of the 

 plots with nitrate of soda and acid phosphate with all these combinations. 

 The plots were seeded down in September, and the first cutting of hay 

 will be taken off in 1926. 



A portion of the same field will be used for the legume experiment, 

 and eighty plots were laid out, sampled and plowed during October. 

 These plots will be treated and seeded to legumes common in New 

 Hampshire, in 1926. 



No field has yet been chosen for the rotation experiment. 



On the plots at Durham, this year's results indicate very little differ- 

 ence resulting from fertilizer treatments, except that the averages show 

 a consistently better yield for those receiving some fertilizer in contrast 

 to the non-fertilized plots. There is a slight increase in average yield of 

 plots having nitrate with phosphorus over those having only phosphorus, 

 but not enough to warrant definite conclusions considering the variation 

 in individual plots included in the averages. 



Averaged according to green manure treatments for three years, the 

 two series of plots which received three crops of green manure, show 

 consistent increases in yield over the plots which received none or only 

 one such crop. There is also a slight increase in average yield in 1925 

 for the plots receiving one rather poor green manure crop over the series 

 which received no green manure, but this does not hold true for 1923 

 and 1924. There is again considerable variation in the yields of indi- 

 vidual plots contributing to all these averages. 



