21 



made to various people interested for help in this connection. 

 The Experiment Station agreed to purchase all fertilisers and 

 superintend their application. The owner of the field was to 

 furnish the labour, to cultivate it and receive the fruit when it 

 had ripened on the field. Under these conditions many acres 

 of pineapples were offered for experimental use. After making 

 a diligent enquiry into the condition of the fields and of the 

 soil, it was finally decided that a field belonging to Ballentine 



6 Moore was the most suitable for experimental work. Ac- 

 cordingly the work was commenced on the field, which had 

 been set out in pineapples the previous July or August on re- 

 cently cleared spruce pine land. Chemical analysis of the 

 " pineapple soil " indicates very strongly that all the essential 

 elements of fertility are wanting in it. Consequently it was 

 thought that no plots would produce a good crop with an in- 

 complete fertiliser. Therefore the plots receiving an incom- 

 plete fertiliser were laid out in hundredth-acres, and plots 

 receiving complete fertilisers were laid out in twentieth-acres. 

 As many forms of nitrogen as were common on the market 

 were secured ; also of potash, bone meal and dissolved Florida 

 phosphate. Each form of nitrogen was combined with each 

 form of potash and convei sely. The phosphoric acid was used 

 in this connection as extensively as the fund would permit. 



" The fertilisers used gave approximately the following 

 formulaa . — 



Nitrogen... ... ... ... 3 per cent. 



Potash ... ... ... ... 7 ,, „ 



Available Phosphoric Acid ... 5 „ ,, 



" The following amounts of fertilisers were applied February 



7 and 8, 1898. A second application of two and a half times 

 that amount was made June 27 and 28, 1898. A third appli- 

 cation of one and a half times the amount was made November 

 4 to 12; 1898, at which time the photographs were taken. 



" The appended table will give the plots in such a way that 

 they may be compared with one another to better advantage : 



