1878.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
131 
this are very common with potatoes and other vege¬ 
tables. I would recommend experiments on such 
crops with potash salts, either with Sulphate of 
Potash,(la); “Muriate,” (I); and Kainit, (16), side by 
side, to test the action of each, or with the Sulphate 
alone. Similar experiments will often be useful on 
grass, grain, corn, and clover. For these the 
“ Muriate ” (I) may do as well as the Sulphate, (la), 
and is cheaper. In like manner, bone, raw and 
superphosphated, Nos. VIII. and IX., can be tried 
wherever the farmer may desire. 
These experiments, whose object is more to test 
the fertilizers than the soil, may be made on soils 
in better condition than would be appropriate for 
those of the first class for testing the soils. But it 
must be borne in mind that in no experiment will 
the first year’s crop tell the whole story; that the af¬ 
ter effects are important; that the crops cf succeed¬ 
ing years will have something to say, and perhaps 
something different. Indeed, this is true of all 
the experiments, and to make them complete they 
should be continued through a series of years and 
crops. At the same time, a good deal may be 
learned from the first season’s results, and I think 
those who do them rightly, will be more ready for 
the repetitions than they were for the first trials. 
Experiments lor Obtaining More General 
Information. 
The. inferences from field experiments are of 
general value in proportion as the questions are 
specific, the plans appropriate, and the trials made 
under known and specified conditions, in varying 
circumstances, with different crops, and through 
series of years. To the large amount of useful in¬ 
formation obtained from field experiments, a great 
deal more can be added. For instance, com is one 
of our most important crops, and is becoming more 
and more so in Eastern and Southern States. But 
farmers, in those States, must depend largely upon 
artificial fertilizers for growing corn. What ma¬ 
terials and mixtures can they best use ? It is, of 
course, foolish to talk of prescriptions to fit all 
cases, but nobody knows now just what will be 
best for any case. The fact is, that the knowledge 
we have of the feeding capacities of corn, its power 
to obtain its food from soil and air, how different 
fertilizers and other circumstances affect it, knowl¬ 
edge of the definite sort that comes from accurate 
experimenting, is extremely limited. But by a 
series of experiments carried out in a number of 
places, with uniform manuring, seed, and tillage, 
and accurate descriptions of soil, weather, and 
other conditions, we might learn a good deal that 
would be valuable. Take, for instance, as the 
main question, the nitrogen supply; how much 
capacity corn has to get it from the soil, and how it 
will best be supplied in manures. We might use 
(1,) the fertilizers of Set A, which would give 
a test of the soil, and to some extent of the fertil¬ 
izers also. Then (2,) to test the effects of nitrogen 
alone in different combinations, apply, along side of 
I, Nitrate of Soda, la, Sulphate of Ammonia, and 16, 
Dried Blood. To test the action of nitrogen with 
other fertilizers, we could start with the mineral ma¬ 
nures, V, (phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid lime, and 
potash) as a basis ; and (3) try the effect of varying 
qualities of nitrogen by adding to these nitrate of so¬ 
da, at the rate of 100 lbs., 200 lbs., and 400 lbs., per 
acre, on successive plots; and (4,) the effects of ni¬ 
trogen in different combinations by adding sulphate 
of ammonia, and dried blood on others ; and using 
Peruvian guano,and fish, each with potash salts, and 
finally stable-manure on still other plots. This 
would make, with three unmanured plots, say 
twenty in all, for which the fertilisers might cost 
as many dollars, an experiment but little more dif¬ 
ficult or costly than farmers often make, and one 
that educational institutions and public-spirited in¬ 
dividuals might unite with most valuable results. 
Of course similar plans could be devised for other 
crops, as is being done to considerable extent of 
late by the European Experiment Stations. 
I make this proposal with the more assurance, 
because several professors and farm superintend¬ 
ents in our agricultural colleges, and public- 
spirited farmers, have expressed to me their desire 
t>9 99-operate in such experiments, it syau, intjeerJj 
through the solicitation of one of the institutions 
referred to,that I was led to bestow especial thought 
to the subject. I should be pleased to correspond 
with any who may be interested to join in such an 
enterprise. W. O. Atwater, 
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. 
--a*,-..*;,, - 
Plants May Thrive on a Meat Diet. 
BT PROF. ASA GRAY. 
After it was ascertained that Sundews and Venus’ 
Fly-traps digested insects as well as caught them, it 
was still a question if it did them any good. We 
ourselves see no difference between supplying com¬ 
bined nitrogen to the roots in the form of manure, 
and to the leaves of such as are capable of imbibing 
it, in the form of fresh animal matter. And we 
could never be brought to believe that such peculiar 
organs and peculiar actions went for nothing, or 
served no purpose useful to the plant itself. Such 
an idea would, to our thinking, border on the athe¬ 
istical. But some very good people were free to 
express such an opinion ; and some made what they 
called experiments or observations ; from which 
they concluded that such plants fed^with insects, 
or with bits of meat, or allowed to help themselves 
to the former, were no more vigorous than those 
from which every thing of this sort was excluded. 
Now Mr. Darwin’s son, Francis, has put this to 
the test by careful and decisive experiments. At 
the beginning of summer, he put 200 plants of com¬ 
mon Round-leaved Sundew ( prosera rotundifolia) 
into wet moss on soup plates,divided each plate into 
two halves by a partition, fed the leaves of the one- 
half every few days with little bits of meat; left 
those of the other half without any, and, covering 
all with gauze, prevented them indulging in the 
capture of insects. Before long it was clear that 
the fed plants were profiting by their meat diet. 
That is, they were perceptibly more vigorous in 
growth and of a better color ; and in time they pro¬ 
duced more flower-stems, and larger ones, as well 
as more leaves. And, what is still more decisive, 
they bore a larger crop of 6eeds, and heavier seeds. 
The exact result as to the crop is recorded in the 
following table, where the numbers and weights 
are put into the form of percentage. The first 
column of figures is from the starved; the second 
from the fed plants : 
No Meat. Meat Diet. 
Total nnmber of flower-stems. 100 : 121.5 
Sum of the weights of these.___ 100 : 164.9 
Total weight of these.— 100 : 231.9 
Total number of pods produced..... 100 : 194.4 
Average number of seed per pod_ 100 : 122.7 
Average weight per seed. 100 : 157.3 
Total calculated number of seeds 
produced. 100 : 241.5 
Total weight of seeds produced..... 100 : 379.7 
As it is to the seed that assimilated nitrogen 
mainly and finally goes, being “put where it will 
do most good,” these last figures are most signifi¬ 
cant ; and the bearings of these facts upon vege¬ 
table physiology are noteworthy. Anyhow, it is 
clear that such plants do not catch flies for naught, 
or out of mere naughtiness. 
Those Important Farm Experiments. 
Every farmer, who possibly can, should take a 
hand in the important experiments announced last 
month, and further described now, on page 130. 
They may be worth hundreds of dollars hereafter 
to every one who tries them. The actual outlay 
need not be over $7 for fertilizers, with a trifle 
more for freight, whils a considerable proportion 
of this, if not the whole, or more than the whole, 
will be quite likely to be returned the present year, by 
increase of crops on the experimental acre. Let us 
re-state the proposal here as plainly as may be : 
Naturally poor soils, and those which have been 
cultivated or worn, have lost one or more elements 
of fertility. We can not see what is missing, and 
an analysis of the soil will not Inform us definitely. 
It is now pretty generally agreed that the lacking 
earnest k one, or jqojp, pf ffe.fi fojjawjpg' : P9TMP, 
or Nitrogen, or Phosphoric Acid, or Limb, or, 
perhaps, Sulphuric Acid. One soil or crop differs 
from another in what it lacks. Barn-yard manure 
supplies all the elements. So do some of the com¬ 
pound manufactured fertilizers ; but there is sel¬ 
dom enough yard-manure on any farm for its neces¬ 
sities or its best profits.—We may buy a compound 
fertilizer, having equal parts (in cost) of four of the 
important elements ; yet if only one of these is 
needed by the soil, we throw away $3 out of every 
$4 paid, besides the labor and cost of handling. 
Millions of dollars have been lost by our farmers 
p -.. 
Fig. 2.— plan op cellar. —[See page 132.) 
in this way ; millions more by buying and using 
fertilizers that, however good of their kind, did not 
happen to contain just the element wanted, and 
other millions by not getting the article paid for. 
THE REMEDY. 
The plan, in brief, is this : The farmer selects an 
acre of land as nearly as possible like the rest of 
his soil. This is to be laid out in ten long plots. 
Upon some of these plots are to be applied certain 
single fertilizers ; on others, two of them or three 
of them together. Two or three plots among the 
others are to have no fertilizers applied. Now, 
across these plots are planted, or sown, strips of 
corn, potatoes, grain, etc., the crops most raised 
by the experimenter, and, therefore, most desirable 
to have tested. 
It will at once be 6een that by watching these 
crops where they cross the various fertilizers, we 
will get a direct answer as to what that soil needs 
for each crop put upon it. For example, if the 
corn on the potashed plot is just as good as on the 
plot having potash, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen, 
we shall know that it is a great waste of money to 
buy costly phosphates and nitrates for such a soil 
and such a crop. If any one or two fertilizers 
show a good profit in their use, as some of them 
doubtless will, we shall know what to use next 
year and thereafter on a larger scale. 
The great advantages of the scheme, as pro¬ 
posed, are these : 1st. The fertilizers sent out are 
all to be tested for quality, purity, percentage 
of each element, etc., by Prof. Atwater.— 2d. 
They are to each be weighed, and sent in separate 
bags, ready to be used on a tenth of an acre—a 
plot 16 rods by 1 rod, or otherwise. 3d. The fer¬ 
tilizers will be supplied at a price just to cover cost 
of preparation, hags, etc. No one is to make any¬ 
thing out of it. (This Journal will make a loss in 
tr0!ll?]e, etc., but § (Jain, in t,Jh? gegerfll informatics 
