Miscellaneous Products. 



234 



[September, 1908. 



analyses of the fruit and plant were 

 made to determine the ratio in which 

 these are present. While it is true that 

 too much dependence cannot be placed 

 in this method of determining the food 

 requirements of plants and fruit, still 

 it aids in estimating the amount of 

 plant food removed by the crop, and, 

 knowing this, it is less difficult to deter- 

 mine the requirements. The results of 

 these analyses will be found in Table 2. 



Table 2. 



Analyses of the Pineapple— Plant 

 and Fruit. 



Station No. 



P2 Oo 



N. 



K 2 O 



Analyses of Fruit 



%• 



% 



%■ 



(Fresh) ... 1285 



•0753 



•0640 



•2565 



1325 



•0591 



■0931 



•2930 



1330 



•0416 



•0910 



•2630 



Analyses of Plant 

 (Air Dried) ... 1286 "8545 -5330 1-3000 

 1326 -7975 '8300 1-3900 



With the above analyses, and the 

 practice of the more successful growers 

 as a basis, it was determined that the 

 ratio of the fertilizer constituents be as 

 follows : — 



Phosphoric Acid ... "80 



Nitrogen ... ... 1-00 



Potash ... ... 2-00 



That is, these amounts in pounds were 

 considered to be the normal annual re- 

 quirements of 100 plants, as determined 

 by analysis and experience. By refer- 

 ence to Diagram II., it will be seen that 

 plot No. 2 of Section A., for example, is 

 given this normal or standard amount, 

 while plot 1 has one-fourth more than the 

 standard, and plot 4, one-half more than 

 the standard, or twice as much as plot 1, 

 the object of this being to determine the 

 quantity of plant-food that will give the 

 best results, assuming that the ratio 

 taken is the correct one. By a careful 

 study of the diagram it will be seen that 

 this plan has been followed with combi- 

 nations of all the fertilizers that were 

 considered most worthy of trial. (Am- 

 monium sulphate, for example, was 

 ruled out on the ground of former expe- 

 rience.) Bone meal, dried blood and high 

 grade sulphate of potash were taken as 

 the standard, or rather ideal materials. 

 It should be noted that in reading from 

 left to right on the diagram — with 

 certain exceptions — the plots have iden- 

 tical amounts of the fertilizing elements, 

 or plant food, the difference being in 

 the sources from which they are derived. 

 A few of the sections were introduced 

 for special purposes and do not conform 

 to this rule. For example, section F. is 



intended to show whether the addition 

 of lime to the standard ingredients, bone, 

 blood and high a;rade sulphate of potash, 

 will prove beneficial ; section C. being 

 the same with the exception of the lime. 

 In the same way section K. is designed 

 to show whether the addition of lime to 

 acid phosphate, blood, and sulphate of 

 potash will prove beneficial; section A. 

 being the same with the exception of 

 lime. Section L. was designed to find 

 out what is likely to prove the best ratio 

 for phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash. 

 On sections R. and S. bone was used as 

 the only source of nitrogen, thus very 

 materially increasing the amount of 

 phosphoric acid added. In section V. 

 the normal amount is kept constant, 

 while the number of applications is 

 varied, the intention being to determine 

 the number of applications that will give 

 the best results. Section W. is designed 

 to determine if it is worth while to vary 

 the ratio during the different stages of 

 growth. For example, on plot 89 the 

 ratio for the first and second applica- 

 tions was phosphoric acid 3 per cent., 

 nitrogen 6 per cent., and potash 12 per 

 cent.; for the third and fourth applica- 

 tions the ratio was phosphoric acid 4 per 

 cent., nitrogen 4 per cent., and potash 

 12 per cent., and so on throughout the 

 section. Section X. is the same as 

 section C. with the exception that each 

 plot in section X. received ten pounds 

 additional bone meal at the beginning. 

 The fertilizers were analysed at the 

 Station, carefully weighed out and mixed, 

 and the proper amount for each plot put 

 into a separate bag before being shipped 

 to Jensen. 



It should be explained that in the 

 case of fertilizers containing more 

 than one of the three essential ingre- 

 dients, as cottou-seed-meal, castor 

 poonac and bone-meal, all of the ingre- 

 dients were included in calculating the 

 amouut to be added. For example, 

 where cotton-seed meal was used as the 

 source of nitrogen, the amount of phos- 

 phoric acid in the required amount of 

 cottonseed-meal was calculated, and 

 this amount was taken into consider- 

 ation when calculating the amount of 

 bone or other substance supplying phos- 

 phoric acid. In the same way, when 

 bone-meal was used with some other 

 substance supplying nitrogen, as for 

 example, nitrate of soda, the nitrogen 

 of the bone-meal was taken into con- 

 sideration when calculating the amount 

 of nitrogen to be obtained from the 

 nitrate of soda. Sections R. and S. how- 

 ever, are exceptions to this, inasmuch as 

 they received the required amount of 

 nitrogen in the form of bone-meal, and 

 thus necessarily received more than the 



