The Effect of Borax in Fertilizers. 101 



seen so late in the season that most of the prominent symptoms 

 had disappeared. None' of these were classed as borax injury 

 unless fairly conclusive evidence such as the characteristic stem 

 and root burning could be obtained. In this connection it may 

 be said that in every one of such mild or doubtful cases where 

 field observations gave presumtive evidence of borax injury and 

 samples of the fertilizer could be obtained the samples were 

 found by the chemists to carry borax in appreciable amounts. 



No attempt has been made by the present writer to secure 

 data as to the yields on any considerable number of fields where 

 borax injury occurred, but numerous cases have been reported 

 where the yields were not over half or one-third of a normal 

 crop and some of the more severely injured fields would hardly 

 produce a sufficient crop to pay the cost of harvesting. 



The early part of the growing season of 1919 in Aroostook 

 county was quite dry. In a few instances much less injury was 

 observed on the lower and less thoroughly drained portions of 

 the fields. In one case the owner planted part of a field a few 

 days before a heavy shower and finished the remainder of it 

 after the rain. Much less injury occurred on that part of the 

 field planted after the rain. Since borax is readily soluble, these 

 observations suggested that it was carried away by the soil 

 water and that in seasons of ordinary rainfall in June much 

 less injury from borax might be expected. Other observations 

 indicated that more thorough mixing of the fertilizer with the 

 soil than is commonly practiced would prevent or materially re- 

 duce the amount of injury. In the greenhouse experiments 

 described later an attempt was made to test these theories and 

 it will be seen that they were not wholly confirmed. 



In studying conditions in the field it soon developed that 

 there was sufficient evidence of a general nature to convince the 

 average person that the trouble under consideration was associ- 

 ated with the fertilizer applied, moreover, that it was in some 

 way connected with the potash used in the fertilizer in most 

 instances. On the other hand many individual cases of them- 

 selves, when considered alone, fell far short of actual proof of 

 this, or of proof approximating that which can be obtained 

 through experimental evidence. However, a few fields of 

 potatoes were found which provided conditions approaching 



