The Effect of Borax in Fertilizers. 93 



any movement which has for its object making American agri- 

 cultural and manufacturing interests partially or wholly inde- 

 pendent of foreign sources of potash. In this connection it may 

 be said that the company principally interested in marketing 

 potash from the Searles Lake deposits states that with improved 

 methods of refining they are now putting out a potash in which 

 the amount of borax is reduced to less than one per cent. 



Some Practices Followed by Maine Potato Growers. 



Methods of growing the potato crop vary considerably in 

 different parts of the country. It may, therefore, assist the 

 general reader if a brief statement is made relative to certain of 

 the practices followed in Aroostook county where most of the 

 observations were made upon the effect of borax in fertilizers. 

 While there are numerous variations, potatoes usually follow 

 clover in a 3-year rotation, in which oats constitute the third 

 crop. While some stock is kept, the great majority of potatoes 

 are grown upon chemical fertilizers supplemented by humus 

 obtained from clover sod alone or from this and "second-crop" 

 clover plowed under the fall before. 



In the last 20 or more years the amount of commercial 

 fertilizer used has gradually and quite materially increased until 

 now an application of 2000 pounds per acre is not an uncom- 

 mon practice and some growers use more than this. With few 

 exceptions this fertilizer is all applied in the drill at planting 

 time. Some planters distribute it above the seed-piece and some 

 below. Those planters in most general use do not deposit the 

 fertilizers in direct contact with the seed-piece, but close to it 

 and not mixed very much with the soil. 



Formerly, when potash was relatively low in price, it was 

 not uncommon to apply fertilizers containing as high as 10 per 

 cent of this ingredient. A 4-6-10 was one of the mixtures pop- 

 ular with Maine potato growers in 1914 and for some years 

 previous. The samples collected by the Bureau of Inspections 

 of the State Department of Agriculture and analyzed by the 

 Station chemists show that the amount of potash in the special 

 potato fertilizers had dropped to 4 per cent or lower in 191 5. 

 In 1916 only a few samples of 4-per cent goods were found. 

 For the most part the fertilizers found that year contained one 



