mo.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
91 
Samples of Field Experiments with Fertilizers, 1870. 
JSxp’t. No. Name. Soil. Previous Treatment. Weather. 
1. J. Flanagan, Paola, Kansas.Clay.Worn down by wheat and corn..Warm, drouth. 
2. W. I. Bartholemkw, Putnam. Conn_Dark loam, compact subsoil_Old meadow.Cold, wet. 
6. W. C. Atwood, Watertown, Conn.Sandy loam, hardpan subsoil...Rye after buckwheat.Very favorabls. 
7. J. M. Manning, Taunton, Mass.Sandy loam, sandy subsoil.Old meadow.Favorable. 
24. Chester Sage, Middletown, Conn.Gravelly loam, compact subsotl.Old meadow.Favorable. 
27. Pkof. W. H. Jordan, Orono, Maine.Heavy clay, compact subsoil.. .Same experiment in 1818.Cold, wet. 
31. Chas. H. Cole, Lunenburg, Vt.Loam. Oats after timothy and clover...Favorable. 
Number op Ba-,.. 
Kind* and Amounts op Fertilizing 
Materials Applied per Acre. 
Valuable Ingredients Applied 
per Acre. 
No Manure. ® 
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Cost per Acre t. 
$7.50 
$5.25 
$4.50 
$10.88 
$10.13 
$9.75 
$15.38 
$0.80 
var’ble 
Yield per Acre. 
bu. 
bu. 
bu. 
bu. 
bu. 
bu. 
bu. 
bu. 
bu. 
bu. 
bu. 
Experiment No. 1 
18.5 
20.3 
20.3 
17.3 
19.2 
12.9 
17.6 
20.1 
13.0 
Experiment No. 2 
7.7 
7.4 
36.5 
7.7 
41.4 
7.1 
42.0 
45.7 
36.0 
8.5 
CORN. 
Experiment No. 6 
8.0 
14.7 
23.3 
29.4 
38.7 
S8.2 
40.2 
80.2 
10.6 
90.5 
Experiment No. 7 
11.3 
11.2 
16.6 
11.0 
18.9 
10.0 
13.3 
15.9 
4.5 
23.9 
[Experiment No. 24 
42.0 
49.2 
46.0 
59.0 
41.1 
58.0 
63.4 
60.8 
44.8 
Averaae of 26 Experiments in 1879. 
24.6 
30.9 
38.4 
81.7 
40.7 
34.0 
40.5 
47.1 
31.4 
43.0 
29.6 
Average of 27 Experiments in 1878..... 
24.6 
30.4 
33 5 
33.3 
39.1 
39.6 
42.9 
48.6 
28.9 
45.9 
24.4 
Experiment No. 27 
37 
49 
38 
73 
47 
59 
111 
129 
35 
116 
Experiment No. 31 
150 
180 
175 
215 
220 
260 
360 
370 
150 
470 
Averaae of 9 Experiments in 1879. 
50.7 
75.3 
88.8 
85.2 
93.2 
83.6 
121.1 
141.2 
69.2 
131.6 
55.0 
Average of 9 Experiments in 1878. 
100.0 
103.0 
123.4 
129 6 
143 2 
106.0 
153.4 
177.3 
106.0 
132.9 
81.5 
1 CORN. 
Average 
Average op 
Produce. 
21.3 
30.1 
34.0 
38.7 
40.0 
23.4 
41.5 
47.9 
21.8 
43.5 
37 Experi- 
Average 
Experi- 
ments. J 
Increase. 
8.8 
12.7 
17.4 
18.7 
2.1 
20.2 
26.6 
2.5 
21.2 
MINTS OP 
POTATOES. 
Average 
Produce. 
75.0 
85.7 
97.9 
109.0 
114.9 
92.0 
134.9 
156.6 
87.3 
131.9 
1878 & 1879. t 
14 Experi- 
Average 
ments. 
Increase. 
10.7 
22.9 
34.0 
39.9 
17.0 
59.9 
81.6 
12.3 
56.9 
* In Experiments 2 and 27,150 lbs. + At market prices, plus $5.00 per ton for freight, t Including only those in 
which farm manures were tested with the chemical fertilizers. 
[Explanation of Table. —The above table will repay careful study. Thus, for example, in Experi¬ 
ment 2, the 150 lbs. per acre of Nitrate of Soda, costing $5,621, brought no increase of com : 300 lbs. of 
dissolved Bone-black (charred bones superphosphated) added nearly 29 bushels at a cost of $5.25; while 
the two together (D) added 33 bushels at a cost of $10.88, and 150 lbs. of Muriate of Potash with these 
making the “ complete ” chemical fertilizer (G), increased the yield by 38 bushels, at a cost of $15.38. 
In Experiment 6 this last mixture increased the yield by 72 bushels. While this complete fertilizer was 
so profitable in No. 6, and the Superphosphate in No. 2, in No. 24 the Muriate of Potash (C) paid best, 
bringing about the same increase alone as with the other materials. In Nos. 1 and 7, alJ the fertilizers 
were failures; in No. 1 apparently because of drouth ; in No. 7 for some unexplained reason. Taking 
the average of the experiments for 1878 and 1879, the “ complete ” chemical fertilizer brought the largest 
crops of both com and potatoes, excelling the farm manures. The mixture of Superphosphate and Pot¬ 
ash Salts brought nearly as large yields of com and larger of potatoes than the farm manures. As to 
average profit, among the chemical fertilizers the complete fertilizer (G) paid best for potatoes, and the 
mixture of Superphosphate and Potash Salts (F) for corn. 
Science Applied to Farming—LY. 
Field Experiments with Fertilizers.— W hat 
Farmers have been Doing 1 . 
That the intelligent American farmer may be a 
good observer, is a fact that has been impressed 
upon me more forcibly than ever by the reports 
sent me of Field Experiments with fertilizers last 
season. As will be remembered, the American Ag¬ 
riculturist has proposed, for two seasons past, some 
series of experiments, and arranged to provide the 
readers with samples of fertilizers for the purpose, 
of tested quality, and at prices just covering cost. 
Each article was put up in a small bag, containing 
enough for >/io or ‘/id acre, and numbered A. B. C., 
etc. Every bag had a label giving amounts and 
proportions of its ingredients. With each lot was 
sent a pamphlet, containing explanations and di¬ 
rections for the experiments, and blanks on which 
any who might care to take the needed trouble, 
were requested to note the results and forward them 
to me. The firms by whom the fertilizers were 
put up, supplied numerous sets to their customers; 
the Vermont Agricultural College distributed a 
Bumber among the farmers of that State; the Maine 
Agricultural College did the same, and made sever¬ 
al series of experiments on its own farm. Promi¬ 
nent farmers in various parts of the country joined 
in the enterprise, so that the trials were made from 
Canada to Florida, and from Maine to Kansas. 
I may say that both the American Agriculturist and 
the dealers displayed a great deal of enthusiasm in 
the undertaking, doing this, as I happen to know, 
at pecuniary cost to themselves, and with no pros¬ 
pect of gain other than would come with the credit 
for encouraging the enterprise. 
The Reports and their Value. 
The blanks for reporting experiments were 
sheets, about 12 by 19 inches, having spaces for not¬ 
ing, on one side: (1) Description of soil; situation, 
kind, texture, dry or wet, depth of surface soil, 
character of.subsoil, etc., etc.—(2) Previous treat¬ 
ment, manuring, and yield.—(3) Weather during 
experiment.—(4) Fertilizers and how applied.—(5) 
Method of sowing, planting, tillage, etc.—(6) Other 
details and remarks. The other side was devoted 
to details of size of plots, dates of planting and 
harvesting, amounts, quality, and value of produce 
in grain, roots, tubers, stalks, etc., by pounds and 
bushels ; calculated profit and loss, etc. Nearly 
seventy of these reports are before me. Some are 
brief, most are well filled, and many entirely so, 
while several have additional interesting and sugges¬ 
tive statements covering a number of pages of fools¬ 
cap, for which there was not room on the blanks. 
From a detailed account prepared for the forth¬ 
coming Report of Conn. Board of Agriculture, I 
condense a few statements of plans and results. 
Experiments for Testing: Soils. 
The principle upon which these experiments is 
based is briefly this: The chief office of fertilizers is 
to supply the plant-food that our crops need and 
soils fail to furnish. It is not good economy to pay 
high prices for materials which the soil may yield 
in abundance, but it is good economy to supply the 
lacking ones in the cheapest way. The most im¬ 
portant ingredients of our common commercial fer¬ 
tilizers are Phosphoric Acid, Nitrogen, and Pbtash, 
because of both their scarcity in the soil and their 
high cost. It is in furnishing these that Guano, 
Phosphates, Bone Manures, Potash Salts, and most 
other commercial fertilizers, are chiefly useful. 
Experiments were suggested in which the three in¬ 
gredients named were to be used, each by itself; 
two by two, and all three together. 
To test the effects of these materials on different 
soils, was the special, and their actions with differ¬ 
ent crops the general purpose of these experiments. 
The ostensible object was to work upon farmers’ 
soils; underneath this lay in my own thought a 
deeper purpose, to work upon their owners’ minds. 
Soils Chiefly Needing: Phosphoric Acid. 
In Mr. Bartholomew's com experiment, No. 2, 
every plot which got Phosphoric Acid brought a 
good crop for the season; every one without it 
failed. The Nitrogen and Potash both increased 
the yield, but reckoning a bushel of corn with its 
stalks at 80 ets., neither increased it enough to pay 
the cost. This experiment was made on a field ad¬ 
joining that of the experiment reported for 1877 
and 1878, iu which the crop rose and fell with the 
Phosphoric Acid, while it paid very little attention 
to the other ingredients. Indeed, in Mr. Bartholo¬ 
mew's experiments, which have now continued for 
three years, covered nearly one hundred plots, and 
are among the most instructive ever made in this 
country, the testimony in favor of Superphosphate, 
and against the other materials for corn is unani¬ 
mous, but for potatoes, the complete fertilizer has 
proved profitable. And for com, Superphosphate 
and farm manure together have brought the best 
results. A number of other experiments have 
equally striking results with Superphosphate. 
There are, however, many 
Soils which respond well to Potash Salts. 
In Mr. Sage’s experiment, No. 24, for instance, 
no plot without Potash gave a profitable increase, 
and no one with it failed to do so. This tallies well 
with his experiments on other parts of his farm in 
1877 and 1878, where the Potash Salts paid more 
than tenfold their cost. The mixture of Super¬ 
phosphate and Potash Salt, F, which Mr. Sage esti¬ 
mates as costing no more applied than the simple 
hauling of stable manure to some of his fields, 
has uniformly brought from 60 to 70 bushels of 
shelled corn per acre. 
The Complete Chemical Fertilizer. 
No. G. has brought by far the best results. It 
was generally the most profitable of all with pota¬ 
toes, and often so with corn and other crops. The 
chemical fertilizers have not only brought larger 
yields than the farm manures, but have also proved 
more certain, both in favorable seasons and in cold, 
wet, and drouth. 
Cases in which None of the Fertilizers were 
Particularly Useful 
are common ; No. 7 is such a one. Indeed, these ex¬ 
periments illustrate very forcibly a fact which few 
farmers appreciate, namely ; that there are a great 
many soils which will not pay for the use of artifi¬ 
cial fertilizers, at least until they are better tilled, 
irrigated, drained, or otherwise improved. In short, 
the reports before me are full of illustrations of the 
important facts that: 
1. Soils vary widely in their capacities for supply¬ 
ing crops with food, and consequently in their de¬ 
mands for fertilizers. 
2. Some soils will give good returns for manuring; 
others, without previous amendment, by draining, 
irrigation, tillage, or use of lime marl, or otherwise, 
will not. 
3. Farmers cannot afford to use commercial fer¬ 
tilizers at random, and it is time they understood 
the reason why. 
4. The right materials in the right places, bring 
large profits. Artificial fertilizers rightly used, 
must prove among the most potent means for the 
restoration of our agriculture. 
5. The only way to find what a soil wants, is to 
study it by careful observation and experiments. 
6. Success in farming, as in other business, re¬ 
quires the use of brains. W. O. Atwateb. 
