aper een) 
HXPERIMENT ON SOIL IMPROVEMENT. 2G, 
grow until the following spring and then turned under for 
green manuring. On plot N 700 pounds of mineral fertilizers, 
consisting of 200 pounds muriate of potash and 500 pounds 
South Carolina acid phosphate, will be used with the regular 
crop grown in the experiment, and rye will be sown for a 
catch crop in the fall and plowed under the following spring. 
On plot P the same kinds and amounts of mineral fertilizers 
will be used as on plot N, but clover or some other legume 
will be sown as a catch crop and plowed under in the 
spring. The same plots are to be fertilized in the same 
manner as here described year after year. An effort will 
be made each year to have the money value of the stable manure 
equal to that of the complete fertilizer. The values of both 
the complete fertilizer and the mineral fertilizers used will 
be determined according to the system of valuation adopted 
annually by the New England Experiment Stations; the value 
of the stable manure for the present will be considered as $3 
per cord of 4,500 pounds. 
In 1899 the ingredients of the complete fertilizer on plot K, 
and the rates per acre at which they were combined, were as 
follows: Nitrate of soda, 200 pounds; sulphate of ammonia, 100 
pounds; tankage, 200 pounds; South Carolina acid phosphate, 
500 pounds, making a total of 1,200 pounds of the mixture per 
acre. The stable manure on plot I, was a mixture of horse 
and cattle manure, weighing 4,500 pounds to the cord, and was 
used at the rate of 12 tons or 5% cords per acre. There was 
no fertilizer applied on plot M, and as no clover had been 
planted the preceding year there was none to plow under for 
green manuring in 1899. The next two plots, N and P, were 
fertilized with the minerals as indicated above, but, as in the 
case of plot M, no crops were ready to plow under until after 
the removal of the crop grown for experiment in 1899. On 
July 20, after the corn was well grown, alsike clover was sown 
on plots M and Pat the rate of twenty-four pounds of seed per 
acre; rye was sown on plot N after the corn was harvested. 
The yields from the different plots for the preliminary experi- 
ment of 1899 are given in Table 51. Inasmuch as the condi- 
tions of this experiment were such that no crops for green 
manuring could be grown so as to be of use as fertilizer for the 
first year’s crop, the results are not discussed in this report. 
