4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ter use, carrots are most conveniently kept in 
a cellar packed, in dry sand. 
As a Field Crop. 
But the carrot is more extensively cultivated 
as a field crop for food for cattle and horses. 
For this purpose the Long Orange and Large 
White Belgian are the best. In good soil these 
rnay attain a size of twelve inches long and 
three inches thick, and give a yield of from 
1,200 to 1,400 bushels to the acre. The land, 
which though light must not suffer from lack 
of moisture, should be thoroughly pulverized 
by deep plowing and repeated harrowing. 
Soak the seed and mix it with ashes or plaster 
sb before, and sow it from the middle of May 
to the first of June, in rows two feet apart with 
a seed-drill, taking care that it does not clog 
in the hopper. Hoe the crop as soon as the 
rows can be seen, and when a couple of inches 
high, the plants should be thinned to six or 
seven inches apart. After this, the horse cul¬ 
tivator should go through the plat at least once 
a fortnight, as long as the crop is growiug. In 
the fall, when the roots are taken up, they 
should be allowed to dry in the sun for a couple 
of days after the tops are cut off, before they 
are put up for winter use. They may be stored 
in a cellar, out-of-doors, or in pits, like pota- 
tatoes and turnips, but having a greater ten¬ 
dency to decay thau these, when put together 
in large quantities, they should be placed in 
small heaps only. 
A crop of carrots is somewhat more expen¬ 
sive to raise thau a crop of turnips, but for 
winter and spring feed both for horses and 
cattle, they are said to be better thau any other 
root crop. Fed in moderate quantities, they 
strengthen the digestive organs of the animals 
and help to assimilate other food eaten in con¬ 
nection with them. Experienced dairymen 
have maintained that carrots fed to milch 
cows, not only increase the flow of milk, but 
that they impart a flavor to the milk similar to 
that from green pasturage, and that the butter 
from cows fed on the Orange varieties ac¬ 
quires a color like summer butter. The fol- 
lowiug analysis gives the composition of car¬ 
rots : 
Water.87.5 
Albumen and casein. 0.6 
Sugar. 5.4 
Fat. 1.2 
Gum. 1.0 
Woody fiber.. 3.3 
Ash. L0 
100.0 
#ttm ®o|irs. 
FIELD TRIALS IN FARMING. 
How to Increase their Certainty, and the Value 
of their Results. 
CONRAD WILSON. 
In this discussion of Experimental Farming, 
I propose to illustrate the true arrangement 
of the factors iu field trials so as to get the 
greatest number of results, aud the largest 
possibilities of yield aud profit. In unfolding 
this argument I shall be able to show not only 
that, better results and greater certainty are 
attainable iu field trials, than we have yet 
reached, but to indicate also the method of 
obtaining them. 
For this purpose, let me briefly submit here 
a form of experiment that is exceedingly sim¬ 
ple, aud that will tend to make the final con¬ 
clusion entirely clear. The plan aud outline 
of the experiment now presented is especially 
adapted to show the relative value for the corn 
crop of the leading chemical elements, both 
separately and combined, aud also at the same 
time to test most thoroughly and exhaustively 
the needs of the soil. It will thus be seen how 
raauy and how marvelous are the results that 
every tiller of the earth can extort, eveu from 
obstinate soils, by experimental processes 
when rightly devised. 
Let us take for this illustration six or seven 
of the chemical elements that euter most large¬ 
ly iuto the composition of crops, and which 
are also found more or less wanting m the soil. 
These are nitrogen, potash, phosphoric acid, 
soda, magnesia, lime and sulphuric acid. 
These elements are comprised iu the following 
ingredients which are furnished by nearly all 
dealers for the use of the farm ; viz., sulphate 
of ammonia, muriate of potash, dissolved bone, 
sulphate of magnesia, and lime. These fertil¬ 
izers, though comprising seven or eight ele¬ 
ments of plant nutrition, make but six factors 
in the experiment. Yet i propose to arrange 
them in such a variety of combinations that they 
will present not less than 70 or 80 distinct 
factors, out of which will flow more thau 100 
separate results, each with a definite meaning, 
and more than 100 tacts of experience, each of 
which will be new to the farmer. 
Thus from six or seveu factors, with their 
legitimate results, he may get a harvest, not 
only of com and stover, but 
A Harvest also of Fuels, Figures and Conclusions, 
out of which he will be able to build up a 
method for the ensuing season, and if he will 
take a little trouble each following year to keep 
the method in good working order, he can 
make it permanent and valuable for the rest 
of hie life. To show the working of this plan, 
let the field for the trial be divided into 10 
plots running north and south, each 20 feet 
wide and 200 feet long. Let the plot at the 
left side of the field remain unmanured, while 
on the next six, the fertilizers above named 
are to be applied, at the rate of 20 pounds on 
each, except the lime, which is five bushels. 
Let ns now suppose these elements to be 
evenly distributed, each through its own strip 
of land, and the corn to be uniformly planted 
through the whole field, which, being 200 feet 
each wa3% contains'a little less than one acre. 
At this stage of the trial we have six-tenths 
of the field planted with corn, and fertilized 
with six different materials, while four of the 
strips still remain without manure. Hence 
there are, as yet, but seven factors, one rep¬ 
resented by each fertilizer and one by the 
natural fertility of the land. If the experi¬ 
ment should terminate here, there would still 
be 13 obvious results, viz : the yield from each 
fertilizer, and the yield from the unmanured 
laud, plus the iucrease of yield for each fer¬ 
tilizer. But there are still other results not 
quite so obvious. For example, if the natural 
soil gives 20 bushels per acre, the lime 50 bush¬ 
els aud the bone 90 bushels, we then have not 
only these three results, but also the increase 
from the lime, the increase from the bone, 
and the difference of yield between the lime 
and the bone. Thus three factors show six 
results, and yet the limit of increase is not 
reached. For if you now count iu a fourth 
factor, say nitrogen, the results would num¬ 
ber not merely eight but ten. 
But this part of the experiment, though 
evidently instructive, useful, and valuable, is 
only a beginning. It brings us to a point 
where the peculiar feature of the plan may 
now be developed. 
Across the field from west to east are now 
to be applied the same fertilizers as before, 
on strips of the same width but only in half the 
amount. 
This Feature of the Plan 
leads at once to many and valuable results, 
that would hardly be suspected by those who 
have not examined it. It not only more than 
doubles, but it more than squares the number 
of factors, and it multiplies in a still higher 
ratio the uumber of final results to be revealed 
at the harvest. Oue of the poiuts here gained 
that deserves especial notice, is this : By re¬ 
peating the several elements in a cross direc¬ 
tion, and in half the amount, we not only dis¬ 
tribute each form of plant food through dif¬ 
ferent parts of the field, but also in three dif¬ 
ferent quantities duly adjusted to each other, 
and in addition to this, we combine each one 
with all the others, and in more thau one pro¬ 
portion. 
For example, sulphate of ammonia will be 
found by itself in some of the plots at the rate 
of 100 pounds per acre ; in other plots at the 
rate of 200 pounds per acre, and again also at 
the rate of 800 pounds. In another part of the 
field it is found iu combination with magnesia, 
at the rate of 200 pounds of the former with 
100 pounds of the latter, while in other plots 
the same two elements are combined in pro¬ 
portions exactly reversed ; aud so through the 
entire series. 
Now the importance of applying fertilizers 
In More than One Proportion 
is strangely overlooked in most experiments, 
and yet it is so essential that no field trial is at 
all complete without it. It appears from the 
wheat experiments of Mr. Lawes, that when he 
varied the quantity of ammonia, while the 
other elemeuls were left stationary, the differ¬ 
ence of yield was not only surprising, but very 
instructive. For example, the addition of 100 
pounds of ammouia increased the yield from 
17 bushels per acre to twenty-one bushels; 
while the addition of 200 pounds gave a pro¬ 
duct of 26 bushels, aud the addition of 400 
pounds brought the yield up to 35 bushels. 
Beyond that limit the further increase from 
ammonia fell off at once so decidedly that the 
use of it was nearly a total loss. 
If, bow, the ammonia in these trials of the 
great English farmer had been used only in 
one quautity, who does not see that the chief 
value of them for practical purposes would 
have been immensely dwarfed? In the light, 
theu, of this illustration, is there any room for 
a doubt as to the advantage of the method 
here presented, by which not only one factor, 
but every fertilizer in the experiment, is ex¬ 
hibited in three different quantities, aud is also 
combined with every other in two or more pro¬ 
portions? This may seem, at first view, to 
make the trial somewhat complex or difficult, 
but the moment it is examined, the difficulty 
vanishes. In fact the easy facility of perform¬ 
ing the experiment, as well as the economy of 
it when compared with the results, cau hardly 
fail to commend it to the attention of practical 
men. 
arrangement by which the second series of 
plots are made to overlap the first, in a differ¬ 
ent direction, and by which also the fertilizers 
are made to croRS the field, not only in differ¬ 
ent directions but in different quantities, while 
increasing amazingly the variety of conditions, 
and the final number of results, does not in¬ 
crease the difficulty of the experiment, but, on 
the contrary, simplifies the work and reduces 
the cost. 
Six different fertilizers are here applied to 
six different sections of land, a 20-pound bag 
to each, (except the lime which is measuted 
by bushels.) and the same materials, in half 
the amount, are again applied on similar sec¬ 
tions over-lapping the first series; this tells 
the whole story, and the cost is scarcely over 
$8 for the materials, even at retail prices, al¬ 
though some dealers offer them for this pur¬ 
pose, at wholesale rates. 
Now, farmers, here is an experiment cover¬ 
ing nearly an acre, and exhibiting seven or 
eight chemical elements under more than 100 
conditions, without any preliminary trouble or 
delay in measuring or weighing the materials; 
for you will find that by this plan the various 
elements, in the very act of distributing them, 
are made to fall in the right positions and 
proportions in every part of the field, and 
that every hill of corn, wherever it stands, will 
have its appropriate share and quality of plant 
food for securing the final purpose intended. 
Now suppose you should attempt to reach 
these same results by having this numerous 
series of combinations previously mixed in an 
endless series of bags, and should then drag 
them about the field to find for each its proper 
place ; would such a process give you a paying 
experiment? On the other hand, by the 
method here offered, you have your corn grow¬ 
ing under more than 100 various conditions of 
plant-food. These conditions you have au op¬ 
portunity of studying all through the season, 
and in the fall you will be able to put the re¬ 
sults from them on record as tests for the soil 
and for each separate fertilizer, and these 
tests will be more complete and exhaustive 
than any chemical analysis, and yet the whole 
effort and the outlay when compared with the 
total result, are so trifling that you are almost 
unconscious of them. 
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CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EXPERI¬ 
MENT STATION. 
Bulletin 24.— April 25, 1879. 
A brief word yet remains as to 
The Cost of this Experiment, 
and the amount of extra work it may be sup¬ 
posed to involve. On these points the farmer 
will be agreeably disappointed. The peculiar 
Fertilizer Analyses. 
251. Ammoniuted Superphosphate. Made 
and sold by the New Haven Chemical Co., New 
Haven, Ct., Sampled April 4, by J. J. Webb. 
Guarantee: Phosphoric Acid 6-7 per cent., 
Ammonia 3^-4^ per cent., potash 5-7 per cent., 
contains also Sulphuric Acid, lime, magne¬ 
sia, etc. 
256. Upton’s Superphosphate of Lime. Made 
by George Upton, Boston, Mass., sold by C. B. 
Farley, assignee, Boston, sampled and sent 
April 14, by Geo. Maxwell, Rockville, Ct. 
Weight claimed per barrel, 230 pounds, actual 
weight of two barrels, 459 pounds. 
252. Chicago Bone Dust. Manufactured by 
Thompson & Edwards, Chicago, Ill., sold by 
John S. Welles, Hebron, Ct. Weight claimed 
per bag 200 pounds, actual weight of one bag 
205 pounds. Very dry and fine, 73 per cent, 
passing holes of 1-50 inch, but 4 per cent, 
coarser than 1-12 inch. 
STATION ANALYSIS. 
Nitrogen. 
PUos. Acid soluble... 
Elios. Acid reverted. 
Elios. Acid insoluble, 
251 
.2.59 
.4.57 
.1.70 
.3.77 
Estima’d val. p. ton__$36.70 
Cost p. ton. 38.00 
256 
3.08 
5.19 
4.58 
1.13 
$35.87 
30.00 
252 
1.77 
26.03 
$41.45 
30.00 
The question is often asked, what are the 
other ingredients of a superphosphate besides 
those upon which its valuation is based ? 
This question is answered by the nearly 
complete analysis which follows: 
251 AMMONIATED SUPERPHOSPHATE. 
Water...... 
Organic (animal; matter. 
Phosphoric Acid soluble. 
Phosphoric Acid reverted. 
Phosphoric Acid insoluble. 
Sulphuric Acid. 
Chlorine. 
Potash. 
Lime. 
Magnesia... 
Soda, oxide of iron and alumina... 
Sand and insoluble earthy matters 
Per cent 
... 8.05 
.. .30.23 
... 4.67 
... 1.70 
... 3.77 
...14.12 
... 7.50 
... 7.31 
...14.82 
... 1,37 
... 1.28 
... 6.28 
.Nitrogen in organic matters.2-59 
Ammonia equivalent to nitrogen.3.14 
As to the state of the ingredients, the acids 
are united to the bases, lime, potash, magnesia, 
soda and oxide of iron, so far as the latter 
suffice, but the soluble phosphoric acid exists 
as an acid-salt, or, perhaps, to some extent, 
as free phosphoric acid. The sulphuric acid is 
present mainly as sulphate of lime (gypsum), 
the potash merely as muriate (potassium chlo¬ 
ride). The reverted and insoluble phosphoric 
acids exist as phosphates of lime, magnesia and 
iron. 
It is seen that a superphosphate like this 
contains all those elements of plant food which 
are derived by vegetation from the soil, and in 
that is a complete fertilizer.” 
The question might be asked, do not the 
lime, magnesia, sulphuric acid, etc., present in 
this fertilizer add to its fertilizing power and 
influence its agricultural value ? The answer 
must be, yes ! It theu may be asked—should 
not the substances, which are unnamed in the 
usual analyses, but which are admitted to have 
an agricultural value, be recognized in com¬ 
puting the commercial value ? 
The answer is—the three elements which 
serve as the basis of the valuation, viz.; nitro¬ 
gen, phosphoric acid and potash, cannot be 
had separate from organic matters, sulphuric 
acid, lime, etc., and therefore the commercial 
value of the latter is iucluded in that of the 
former. It is true that in different fertilizers, 
nitrogen phosphoric acid and potash are asso¬ 
ciated with different quantities, and to some 
extent with different kinds of other elements, 
but the latter are of very subordinate com¬ 
mercial value, and their variations do not 
sensibly affect the valuation of the fertilizer. 
Another question often put is—why must 
the farmer buy so many pounds of water, or¬ 
ganic matter, sand or even of sulphate of lime, 
in order to get the few pounds of valuable fer¬ 
tilizing matter ? The answer is that the raw 
materials from which the manufacturer must 
obtain nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, 
in most cases, cannot be made to yield those 
valuable elemeuts in a more concentrated 6tate, 
without increased cost to the purchaser. 
S. W. Johnson, Director. 
Industrial ImjrUiRfnk 
A NEW KNIFE GRINDER. 
A new knife grinder for sharpening mower- 
sections and doing general work is shown in 
the annexed engraving. 
Its advantages are its 
extreme simplicity, so¬ 
lidity and portability. 
The rest that holds the 
knife to be ground, is ad¬ 
justable to any angle, 
and the emery-wheel, 
having a convex grind¬ 
ing surface, it is easy to grind up iuto the 
"jaw ” of the knife-section, and, in fact, thor¬ 
oughly go over the cutting-edge of the entire 
knife with great rapidity and thoroughness. 
An entire section may be ground during the 
pauses of mowing or harvesting. The Emery 
is a new patent that will not glaze on its grind¬ 
ing surface dtir’ug the entire time of its use. 
A very important feature this. It is the inven¬ 
tion of a practical farmer who perceived its 
necessity in his own farm work. The Wood 
Mfg. Co., of Worcester, Mass., are the manu¬ 
facturers. 
