56 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



phosphorus on that same land during the same four years. Thq 

 first year there was an increase of .i of a bushel of corn, and 

 the next year .9 of a bushel, the third year an increase of 3.9 

 bushels, but insects destroyed a considerable part of that, yield 

 and the record was taken from one end of the field where it was 

 not so much injured, but we have not very much confidence in 

 this 3.9 bushels increase. The fourth year the increase was .3 

 of a bushel. That shows very plainly that that soil is fairly rich 

 in phosphorus. When you have a chemical analysis, supported 

 by field tests, you are safe in putting it into practice. We may 

 have a field result, gentlemen, sometimes, which ought not to be 

 followed, and the notion that you can try on your own field some 

 particular kind of fertilizer and think you can find out what to 

 do is pretty dangerous procedure. There may be an indirect ef- 

 fect of it. You may put something on the soil that liberates 

 something and does not restore it. Go add land plaster or sodium 

 sulphate or a good many soluble materials, but the thing you 

 add will force the soil to give up phosphorus. What is the re- 

 sult ? You finally reach the condition where the soil is exhausted 

 and the soil is worse off than in the beginning, and instead of 

 building up your land, you have been spending your money to 

 run it down. You should have complete information and not 

 depend on some trial you might make on your own field. It is 

 best to know what ails you before you take much medicine. 



, In Tazewell County there is some very sandy land, ver}' poor 

 in nitrogen. As an average of two consecutive years, when 

 corn was grown there, nitrogen gave an increase in the yield of 

 corn of 50.8 per acre. You know it is said we should not be- 

 lieve anything we hear and only half of what we see. Yoti 

 might almost question the possibility of such an effect as this, 

 but if you have a piece of exceedingly sandy land that won't 

 grow much of anything, you might try putting $15 or $2ci 

 worth of commercial nitrogen on an acre of it. Put on plenty. 

 You dairy people get it from the air, with profit in the getting. 

 When you get it in a commercial way it costs money. We got 

 about 70 bushels yield of corn per acre, which was an increase 

 of 50.8 bushels, as an average. Where we put phosphorus on 



