174 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
(started from sods) in the same pots and soil that had been 
used for orchard grass in 1899. The experiment with Hun- 
garian grass in 1899, which was a repetition of that of 1898, 
was more successful but, as pointed out on page 166, there 
were irregularities in this experiment also; the third experi- 
ment on the same soil was a failure. 
The failures in these cases are believed to be due mainly to. 
an excess of nitrogen resulting from the addition of more nitro- 
gen to that left over from the fertilizer used the year or two 
years before; and, perhaps, in part to a bad physical condition 
of the soil. The reason for believing that excess of nitrogen 
was the main cause of failure is that the plants which first 
began to decline and which died first were those in the pots. 
receiving the largest application of nitrogen, while in the pots. 
which received no nitrogen the growth was nearly normal up 
to the time the experiments were discontinued and the crops. 
discarded. ‘The apparent injurious effects of the surplus nitro- 
gen were first observed during the season of growth in the sec- 
ond oat experiment, as shown by notes made on July 20, 1899: 
‘Since first appearing above the soil the plants seem to have 
grown in reverse order from what might have been expected. 
That is, they varied from the smallest in those pots having the 
full nitrogen ration, to the largest in those having none (the 
mineral plots). The highest plants are now about 16 to 18 in. 
tall, while the plants in the full nitrogen ration pots appear to 
be making very slow growth, and are about 10 to 12 in. tall.’” 
Similar notes made in connection with experiments in 1900. 
on timothy (from sods), which was the second, and on Hun- 
garian grass (from seed), which was the third, in the respect-. 
ive soils, showed that the growth was in reverse order to the 
quantities of nitrogen used. The plants began to look sickly 
and died when they were a few inches in height, where the 
largest quantities of nitrogen were used, while the only pots of 
soil which produced anything like a normal growth were those 
to which no nitrogen was applied. | 
CONCLUSION. 
As the pot experiments are being continued with much 
smaller quantities of nitrogen, it has been thought best to. 
defer drawing any deductions until the results of the later: 
experiments can be compared with those here reported. 
