•3Afl 
SUPPLEMENT TO THE BUBAL NEW-YORKER, 
44 
THE RURAL’S EXPERIMENTS 
With Different Fertilizers on Potatoes Grown in a “Worn-out 
Loam Noil Continued. 
A CORROBORATION OF PREVIOUS CONCLUSIONS. 
An infertile soil may need only one or two of* the chief* food constituents. This needs all. Errors in 
judging the results of concentrated fertilizers. 
That our later subscribers may under¬ 
stand these experiments, we must repeat, 
to some extent, what our older subscri¬ 
bers are supposed to be. familiar with. 
Here we have a soil that will not “grow 
beans,” or even a good crop of weeds 
without mauure. Though cropped year 
after year, t his part of the field had received 
neither fertilizers nor manure for many 
rears. It was, therefore, very hungry 
and ready to show its appreciation of a 
lull meal, which rich soils never do. 
What did the soil need? Was it bone, or 
potash or ammonia — one, two or all? 
Would ashes or hen mauure or farm ma¬ 
nure or plaster give a good crop? Would 
tertilizer give a larger crop than manure? 
Would ground fish yield a good crop? 
Would nitrogen in excess help the crop? 
Would a larger quantity of nitrogen alone 
produce a paying crop? Would soluble 
phosphoric acid, or soluble potash or 
the two combined prove sufficient help to 
the land for a crop? Could a good com¬ 
plete manure for potatoes be made from 
dissolved rock, nitrate of soda and muri¬ 
ate of potash? How would the same 
compare with a standard complete potato 
manure. All these questions we hoped 
to answer by this senes of experiments, 
and we believe they have been answered 
as fully as if they had been lepeated for 
many years on the same land, if rich, for 
the reason that all the conditions were 
favorable to a direct answer. Had the 
soil been fertile or the season dry or very 
wet, further trials would have been ne¬ 
cessary. As it is, almost exactly the same 
results are shown, not only with potatoes 
but with corn, asiti 1884 when essentially 
the same experiments were tried in the 
same way. 
The land was plowed April 10. A 
shovel-plow was used to form the trenches 
foul* inches deep, the trenches three feet 
apart, measuring from the middle. The 
seed potatoes were, as heretofore, placed 
under knotted cords one foot apart. 
Each trench was 33 feet long, and 33 
pieces weighing exactly 20 ounces, were 
planted in each. Some potatoes were 
cut, some were whole. Weight of seed 
was our guide, not number of eyes. The 
size of each seed potato, whether cut or 
whole, was as nearly that of a hen’s egg 
as could be guessed at. The work of 
planting was begun at eight o'clock 
Aprd 14 and finished at 5:30, three me* 
being employed. The Rural Calico Po¬ 
tato, an early variety, was the seed plant¬ 
ed. Last year it was the White Star, an 
intermediate kind. There was scarcely a 
breath of air moving to interfere with the 
even distribution of the fertilizers—the 
season was favorable to a maximum yield 
from first to last. In the yield per acre 
we have omitted fractions. 
In the following diagram the heavy 
lines show' the rate of yield per acre and 
are drawn to a scale — one-eighth of an 
inch representing 10 bushels —one inch 
equal to 80 bushels. All the potatoes 
were weighed regardless of size—and 60 
pounds rated as a bushel. 
Plots. 
Fertilizer. 
No. 
1 . 
Nitrate of Soda. 
No. 
IX- 
Natural Soil. 
No. 
2. 
Sulphate of Ammonia 
No. 
3. 
Dissolved Bone-black 
No. 
4. 
Natural Soil. 
No. 
5. 
Sulphate of Potash 
No. 
0. 
Plaster. 
No. 
r* 
4. 
Natural Soil. 
No. 
8. { 
Nitrate of Soda. - 
Dissolved Boue-black 
No. 
9. 
Farm Manure, two-years old 
Pounds Vine Growth 
applied May 27. 
per acre. 10 maximum. 
200 
3 
Yield 
bushels 
jier acre. 
■ 141 
Plots. 
No. 10. 
No. 17. 
No. 18. 
No. 19. 
Fertilizer. 
Hen Manure. 
Mapes’ Potato Manure. 
Farm Manure, two years old 
Pounds Vine Growth Yield 
applied May 27. bushels 
per acre. 10 maximum. per acre 
1,440 4 
Mapes’ Potato Manure. 
1,300 
9 
373 
\ Acid Phosphate. 
No. 20. Nitrate of Soda. 
I Muriate of Potash. 
No. 21. Acid Phosphate. 
N .>, ( Nitrate of Soda. 
' 1 Muriate of Potash. 
No. 23. Ground Fish. 
124 
No. 24. 
Mapes' Potato Mauure 
The seed pieces mulched with old straw. 
Rural Trench mulch system. 
1,200 
323 
N tn \ Nitrate of Soda. 
°* ' | Sulphate of Potash. 
200 
300 
^ .. \ Dissolved Bone-black 
' \ Sulphate of Potash 
400 
300 
Nitrate of Soda. 
200 
400 
Sulphate of Potash. 
300 
This plot was affected by the root of a tree. 
No. 13. Raw Boue. 
No. 14. Farm Mauure, two years old 
No. 15. Natural Soil. 
No. 25. 
No. 36. 
No. 27. -j 
Natural Soil, 
Hen Mauure 
Blood. 
Nitrate of Soda. 
Sulphate of Ammonia. 
No. 28. 
Mapes’ Potato Manure, 1,200 lbs., with 
following Nitrogen Mixture added: 
Blood. 
Nitrate of Soda. 
Sulphate of Ammonia. 
Mulch was used same as No. 24. 
600 
10 
235 
No. 29. Same as 28, except that a mulch of old t 
straw was spread over the seed pieces \ 
224 
COMPARATIVE AVERAGE YIELDS. 
AVERAGE YIELD OF THE TRENCHES with Neither Manure nor Fertilizers, 
AVERAGE YIELD OF THE TRENCHES with Incomplete Fertilizers, 
AVERAGE YIELD OF THE TRENCHES with Hen Manure, 
AVERAGE YIELD OF THE TRENCHES with Ground Fish, 
AVERAGE YIELD OF THE TRENCHES with Farm Manure, 
AVERAGE YIELD OF THE TRENCHES 
with Special Complete Potato Manure, 
74 bushels per acre. 
112 bushels per acre. 
114 bushels per acre. 
124 bushels per acre. 
139 bushels per acre. 
224 bushels j>er acre. 
