1879.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
177 
ful farmers, from Maine to North Carolina, on a vari¬ 
ety of soils, good, bad, and indifferent, but mostly 
poor. Prof. Atwater has given, in March, page 91, 
and in this number, this page, some of the results. 
We will summarize here for the general reader, a 
few of the apparent lessons derived, but recommend 
a careful study of Prof. A.’s articles and tables. 
On the average, the largest increase in the yield 
of corn, 48w bushels, was obtained from using the 
“ complete ” chemical fertilizers, applied at the 
rate of $15.38 per acre (including $5 per ton added 
for freight and handling the fertilizers). The next 
best average yield was with farm manures, viz., 46 
bushels per acre. But the most profitable yield was 
from those chemical fertilizers which supplied 
phosphoric acid and potash, with no nitrogen added, 
viz,, 300 lbs. superphosphate (dissolved burned 
bones) with 300 lbs. muriate of potash. Cost of the 
two, $8.75.* Yield of corn from their use, 43 bush¬ 
els of shelled corn. (Cost of corn, a trifle over 20 
cents per bushel, deducting nothing for increased 
value of stalks—the labor of planting and tillage 
being about the same as for a small crop.)—In a 
few cases 150 lbs. of muriate of potash produced 
quite as good results. Sharp buyers can probably 
obtain 800 lbs. of first quality superphosphate, and 
150 lbs. muriate of potash, for about $7.35. If this 
mixture averaged as above; viz., 43 bushels shelled 
corn, the cost would be under 17 cents per bushel. 
In these estimates we charge the whole cost of the 
fertilizer to the first crop of corn, allowing nothing 
for the after effects, which is of no small account. 
It should be borne in mind that the above fertil¬ 
izers enable the corn to gather a good deal of nitro¬ 
gen : that when the corn is fed at home a large part 
of this nitrogen goes back into the soil in the form 
of manure, to enrich it for other crops; that this 
will often nearly, or quite repay the cost of the fer¬ 
tilizers, and that if cotton-seed meal, linseed cake, 
palm-nut meal, or bran, be fed with the corn, they 
will not only supply the nitrogen that the corn¬ 
stalks lack to make them excellent fodder, but will 
also make rich manure at small cost to bring up 
the farm to high fertility. These are matters well 
worthy the careful consideration of every thought¬ 
ful farmer. 
In stating the above general results of the experi¬ 
ments, it is to be added, that in many cases potash 
salts did not pay; in a few, superphosphate 
did not pay ; while nitrogen in nitrate of soda, or 
sulphate of ammonia, or other forms, rarely repaid 
its cost. Some one fertilizer paid best in one 
case, and another in another. Some soils are too 
wet. or too dry, too loose, or too compact, to make 
any fair returns ; but on soils capable of doing any¬ 
thing with manure, with at all favorable weather, 
the fertilizer that fitted the particular soils and 
their condition, brought very large profits—from 
two to ten-fold the cost of the fertilizers applied ; 
and this in the first crop, allowing nothing for 
future benefit to both soil and manure. One aim 
of our proposed experiments this year is to try to find 
out, as far as possible, what fertilizers do fit particu¬ 
lar soils. 
The upshot of the whole matter is just here : In 
the older States, and wherever the soils are depre¬ 
ciated by cropping, and especially where they are 
pretty well worn out, artificial fertilizers are indis¬ 
pensable, in the absence of abundant farm ma¬ 
nures, and the ones that fit the demands of the soil 
and crop, must be profitable as a rule. 
Taking the experiments as a guide, while the 
mixture of superphosphate with potash salts gener¬ 
ally gives the most profitable returns for their cost, 
if one wishes the largest possible yield per acre, it 
may be well to put with the phosphoric acid and 
potash, some nitrogen in the form of nitrate of 
* Superphosphate (dissolved bone black) costa $30 to $35 
per ton—Muriate of Potash, ('•80 per cent") $35 per ton, 
300 lbs Superphosphate, at $35 per ton_$5.25) tg ~ 
200 lbs. Muriate of Potash, at $35 per ton., 3.50 S 
Or. 
300 lbs. Superphosphate, at $30 per ton_ $4.50) 10 
l5(Ubs. MurMe.QfJl'OtSSh.AtftH per ton..$2,63 
soda, or better, perhaps, in the form of good Peru¬ 
vian guano—using per acre one of the following: 
300 lbs. superphosphate, 
200 lhs. muriate of potash, 
150 lbs. nitrate of soda, 
or, 
or, 
200 lbs. superphosphate, 
150 lbs. muriate of potash, 
300 lhs. Lobos guano. 
250 lbs. superphosphate, 
150 lhs. muriate of potash, 
200 lhs. Standard Peruvian 
guano. 
The amount of each of these fertilizers required 
per acre, may be less or more than the above, ac¬ 
cording as the soil is in good condition, or very 
poor. The fertilizers are supposed to be finely 
ground, well mixed, spread broad-cast, and har¬ 
rowed in before planting. One half of these may 
be so applied, and the other half be scattered 
thinly in the hill at planting, and covered with a 
little earth so as not to come in contact with the 
tender young roots, and thus injure their growth. 
salts, which, with many important facts in agri¬ 
cultural chemistry, his system curiously ignores. 
The Stockbridge Formula for Corn. 
Professor Stockbridge’s formulas are calculated 
to furnish the amounts of nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid and potash which the crop is found by analy¬ 
sis, on the average to contain. Thus he recommends 
for Indian corn :* “ To produce 50 bushels of the 
grain, and its natural proportion of stover to the 
acre, more than the natural yield cf the soil; and 
in like proportions for other quantities, use ’’—the 
formula below. To the formula I append cost of 
materials as recommended by Prof. Stockbridge, 
and the cost of same ingredients in cheaper forms, 
basing estimates, here, as elsewhere, upon current 
market rates, with $5 per ton added for freight and 
handling. To resume then, we have the following: 
Fertilizers For Corn. 
Science Applied to Farming 1 , LI. 
Fertilizers for Corn.—Lessons from the Field 
Experiments. 
In his excellent new book, “Talks on Manures,” 
Mr. Harris, says, “We know less about the tnanu- 
rial requirements of Indian Com than almost any 
other crop we cultivate.” The main question is the 
nitrogen supply—whether, like other cereals (wheat, 
barley, oats, grasses, etc.), corn has but little power 
to get nitrogen from natural sources, and requires 
nitrogenous fertilizers; or, whether, like legumi¬ 
nous plants (clover, beans, peas, etc.), corn can 
gather the nitrogen for itself; that is, whether corn 
is, like wheat, an exhausting crop, or like clover, a 
renovating crop. Mr. Harris is rather inclined to 
class it with the cereals, but mentions some facts 
which indicate that in feeding capacity it is more like 
the leguminous plants. If the latter is the case, then 
Indian corn grown and consumed on the farm, will, 
“ like clover, enrich the land.. .the corn will gather 
up the nitrogen that the wheat crop cannot appro¬ 
priate, and when the corn and stalks are fed, some 90 
per cent of the nitrogen will be left in the manure.” 
Mr. Lawes has written a letter to the Secretary of 
the New Jersey Board of Agriculture, and also 
another letter to Mr. Harris, discussing this same 
question, and insisting, as Mr. Harris also does, 
upon the need of experiments to test it. He says, 
“It is of very great importance to know to what 
extent Indian corn follows the same law [as the 
cereals]; that is to say, on a soil which, under a 
liberal supply of potash and phosphoric acid, will 
yield 20, 30, or 40 bushels of corn, what increase is 
obtained by aliberal supply of ammoniaor nitrates?” 
Mr. Lawes is inclined to class corn with the cereals, 
though he would expect that with mineral fertiliz¬ 
ers it would, during its longer period of growth, 
get more food from soil and air, and, especially, 
more nitrogen,and give a larger produce than wheat. 
Formulas for Corn Fertilizers. 
In a letter to the Treasurer of the Massachusetts 
Society for Promoting Agriculture *, Mr. Lawes, 
says, “The best possible manure for all the 
graminaceous crops—wheat, barley, maize, oats, 
sugar-cane, rice, pasture grass—is a mixture of su¬ 
perphosphate of lime and nitrate of soda....Pot¬ 
ash is generally found in sufficient quantities in 
soils, and the artificial supply is not required.” 
The Ville Formula for Corn. 
Ville urges what he calls “ complete fertilizers” 
containing nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash and 
sulphate of lime, and he regulates the proportions 
by the assumed power of the plant to get its food 
from soil and air, and the special effects of the dif¬ 
ferent fertilizing substances upon it. He classes 
corn with sugar-cane, sorghum, turnips, rutabagas 
and artichokes, for which he makes phosphoric 
acid the “dominant” or most efficient ingredient. 
Belov is his formula for an acre of com with 
the amounts of valuable ingredients and their cost 
in the forms he recommends. The last column 
gives the cost in equally good but cheaper materials, 
like nitrate of soda, guano, bone and potash 
* Bulletin of the Bussey Institution, I, 181. From 
later writings of Mr. Lawes, I think lie would not insist 
upon the universal application of (he above remarks 
concerning potash. 
MR. LAWES. 
“Best Possible Manure,” “Mixture of Superphosphate 
and Nitrate of Soda.” 
VILLE FORMULA. COST, /u 
In for- cheapest 
Materials per acre. Ingredients. mttla. form. 
Nitrate of potash, 180 lbs.) Nitrogen, 24 lbs $ 9-20 $ 4.80 
Acid phosphate i-Phos. Acid, 81 lbs. 9.45 
of lime... 540 lbs. J Potash, 79 lbs. 1.00 
Sulphate of lime, 360 lbs. 1.44 
$27.09 
STOCKBRIDGE FORMULA 
“ To produce 50 bushels above the natural yield of the soil. 
9.45 
3.56 
1.44 
$19.25 
cost. In 
Infor- cheapest 
Materials per acre. Ingredients. mula. form. 
Sulph.of ammonia,320lhs .) Nitrogen,64 lbs...$15.20 $12 80 
Superphosphate... 218 lbs. • Plios.acid,Mlbs.. 4.34 4.34 
Muriate of potash, 154 lbs.) Potash, 77 lbs. 3.46 3.46 
$23.00 $20.60 
The Ville and Stockbridge formulas differ from 
Mr. Lawes’ recipe in supplying potash. Ville adds 
plaster also.—Prof. Stockbridge differs from Ville, 
in that he, (1), ignores the plant’s feeding capacity 
and the specific effects of the different materials 
upon it; (2), considers only the composition ; (3), ac¬ 
cordingly gives nitrogen the dominant place instead 
of phosphoric acid—putting little of the latter in his 
formula, but so much nitrogen as to make its cost 
over three-fifths of the whole ; (4), omits the plaster. 
"What our Experimenters Have to Say P 
The men who made the experiments last season 
have furnished us more light by far, on some of 
these points, than I have been able to find in all the 
data to which 1 can get access, from this country 
and from Europe. A brief outline of the results of 
27 trials on corn—with nitrate of soda, superphos¬ 
phate, and potash salts, each alone, two by two, 
and all three together, on various soils, some very 
good, others fair, and more very poor, in good 
weather and bad, from Maine to North Carolina— 
was given in the March article, page 91. The 
effects of the individual ingredients, as shown by 
the averages for each experiment of the increased 
yields on tlie several plots were, in brief, as follows :+ 
Phosphoric acid in 8 experiments was decidedly the 
regulating ingredient—the crops responding uni¬ 
formly to the superphosphate, and paying compara¬ 
tively little attention to the other materials. In 14 
experiments it took a less important, but still promi¬ 
nent place. In 5 experiments it produced little or 
no effect, the average increase with the superphos¬ 
phate on the several plots being, in each case, less 
than 4 bushels per acre. 
Potash in 4 experiments, held decidedly the 
dominant position; in 14 others the potash salts 
were more or less efficient, in 9 the increase with 
them was less than 4 bushels per acre. 
Nitrogen took, in no experiment, the regulating 
place. In 16 the nitrate of soda was more or less 
useful; in 11 the increase fell below 4 bu. per acre. 
The phosphoric acid and potash together, No. V., 
(No. F, of this year’s set), costing at the rate of 
$9.75 per acre, brought a larger yield than either of 
the two with nitrogen—the average with these 
“ mixed minerals ” being 43 bushels per acre. This 
was the most profitable fertilizer of all. The com¬ 
plete fertilizers, No. VI., (G of this year), contain¬ 
ing all three, and costing $15.38 per acre, brought 
the largest average yield, 48! bushels per acre, and 
* Report of the Mass. Agriculture College. 1876, p. 35. 
+The experimental fertilizers, “Set A" and “No. 
XIIL,” of last year, were the same as “ No, 3 ” this year. 
