130 SUGAR BEET SEED. 



izer used had to increase or diminish these elements 

 so as to create uniformity. Consider, for example, the 

 case where there was only 0.06 phosphoric acid as 

 compared with 0.25 per cent, contained in another 

 patch. On the farm at Besny it was found desirable 

 from the start to use 2500 lbs. of furnace slag per 

 acre, which was well plowed under. The results 

 obtained were up to expectations, showing that science 

 and practice do pull together. To follow, in its intri- 

 cate details how the typical fertilizer was determined in 

 each case by numerous experiments and observations, 

 would carry the reader too far away from the 

 general subject now under discussion. The con- 

 clusions, upon general principles, were that for argillo- 

 calcareous and very calcareous soils, nitrogen and 

 potassa must predominate, while for sandy soils phos- 

 phoric acid plays a most active part. A system of 

 rotation has been adopted; hence, the use of fertilizers, 

 such as blood, waste from woolen factories, etc., may 

 be advantageously applied a year or more previous to 

 mother planting or beet cultivation. 



On most American farms fertilizers receive but a 

 secondary consideration. Compare this condition 

 with the annual use of 1760 tons of barnyard manure, 

 220 tons of leaves and necks from a crop of beets, 950 

 tons defecation scums from beet-sugar factories, 52 

 tons sodic nitrate, 15 tons sulphate of ammonia, 30 tons 

 fish guano, 60 tons oil cake, 161 tons woolen waste, 

 10 tons dried blood, 24 tons potassic chloride, 21 tons 

 double phosphate of potassa and magnesia, 108 tons 

 furnace slag, 60 tons phosphate and 9 tons super- 

 phosphate. All this for 750 acres of land. As regards 

 rotation of crops, no definite method has been adopted 

 at Besny; the beet, however, appears most frequently, 

 and by the scientific use of fertilizers, 250 acres culti- 

 vated in beets average 12 tons to the acre and i5 per 

 cent, sugar. 



