TOP DRESSING GRASS LAND. IO7 



NITRATE OF SODA AND MURIATE OF POTASH 

 AS TOP DRESSING FOR GRASS LAND. 



Chas. D. Woods. 



Four half acre plots were laid off in a field that had been in 

 grass for four years. The field was well and apparently evenly 

 stocked with mixed grasses, chiefly timothy. The chemicals 

 were applied as a fine spray by the use of a four-rowed automatic 

 spray pump such as is used for spraying potatoes. In this way 

 an even distribution of the fertilizer was insured. The chemi- 

 cals were applied May 9, 1903. This was a bright sunny day 

 with no wind of any amount, the spraying apparatus worked well 

 and the chemicals were evenly applied. 



The season was unfavorable for this class of an experiment 

 because of the small rainfall in May and June which was prob- 

 ably insufficient to redissolve the chemicals and carry them to 

 the roots of the plants. May 19 there was a rainfall of .25 inch. 

 The next appreciable rainfall was of .34 inch on June 9. On 

 June 12 and 13, 1.28 inches of rain fell. Probably not until 

 these rains or five weeks after the application of the fertilizer 

 did they become available to the grass. Because of the rain it 

 was impracticable to harvest the crop until August 2. The 

 copious rains in July kept the grass growing so that at cutting 

 the timothy was not seriously over ripe. The soil being a clay 

 loam, well stocked with humus, is not "leachy" and probably 

 none of the nitrate or muriate was carried to such a depth as 

 to be beyond the reach of the grass roots. 



Unfavorable as the season was, the application of the nitrate 

 of soda was probably profitable, for it cost practically no more 

 to harvest the increased yield and the 700 to 1,000 pounds of 

 hay per acre is worth about double the cost of the ninety pounds 

 of nitrate and its application. In this year, on this soil and with 



