New York AGRICULTURAL ExprerImMENT STATION, 987 
(7) Considering the varying market price of onions from one 
year to another and the various vicissitudes to which the crop 
is subjected, the use of the larger quantities of fertilizer (above 
500 Ibs.) was attended by danger of financial loss, 
GENERAL CONDITIONS. 
Experiments and investigations were begun by the Station in 
the Second Judicial Department of New York in the year 1894. 
One of the conditions of practice prevalent in that portion of 
the State, especially with the market gardeners and potato and 
onion growers, was the excessive use of commercial fertilizers. 
The application of one ton or more per acre of a high grade, 
complete fertilizer was frequently observed. 
Reasoning from general facts, it did not seem clear that such 
a large expenditure for commercial plant-food was justified from 
the standpoint of profit. In order to determine the correctness 
of this view, field experiments with fertilizers on potatoes were 
begun on Long Island in 1895, which were continued until 1900, 
during the last four years of which time observations were made 
on four farms located at different points in potato growing dis- 
tricts. The general outcome of these experiments was to show 
that, so far as profit from the potato crops was concerned, the 
use of 1000 lbs. of fertilizer per acre was more profitable than 
the use of 500 Ibs., 1500 Ibs. or 2000 Ibs. 
In 1898 similar observations were begun at Florida, Orange 
County, on the use of commercial fertilizers in growing onions. 
These have been continued each year since, the experiment of 
1901 being regarded as concluding the series. 
THE EXPERIMENTS. 
PLAN, 
In these experiments, conducted for four years on one farm 
(Purdy field) and for one year on another (Mars field), approx- 
imately one acre of land was utilized in each locality. This acre 
