114 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
demonstrate what kinds of fertilizers were really called for, and 
determine once for all whether a potassic or a phosphatic or a 
nitrogenous fertilizer was specially needed to supplement the 
natural streneth of the land. ‘The crop employed in making 
these tests was Indian corn of the long-eared, eight-rowed yellow 
variety, and it was planted on strips of land in such manner that 
the plants were three and a half feet distant from one another in 
each direction. Between each plot boards over twelve inches in 
width were sunk in the ground to keep each kind of fertilizer 
in place. 
After the corn had matured and been harvested, it was kept 
well into the winter in an airy place until it had become dry before 
it was shelled and weighed. 
In-the tables on pages 116 and 117 are given the kinds and 
money values of fertilizers that were applied to the several plots, 
and the bushels and pounds of shelled corn that were harvested 
from each plot; it being noted that the bushel of Indian corn 
weighs fifty-six pounds. 
For the sake of easy comparison a rough approximation to the 
figures of the tables is given in the form of the black lines 
printed on pages 118 and 119. The best crop is represented by 
the longest line and the other crops follow in the shorter lines in 
the order of their merit, very nearly. 
The marked superiority of the ground bone in all these trials 
was most unexpected, and is really not a little remarkable. In 
fact, the results of the experiment indicated so clearly the real 
needs of my land that I proceeded at once to set up a small 
establishment for ‘‘rendering” bones and for grinding the 
steamed bones to a fine powder. I have derived no small profit 
from the use of this fertilizer, and have had no little satisfaction 
in supplying myself and a few friends with an absolutely pure 
and unsophisticated article. 
During eight or nine years after the conclusion of the experi- 
ment I applied the ground bone, at the rate of nearly one ton to 
the acre, with marked success, to a variety of garden crops, 
notably to asparagus and rhubarb, being led to do so by the 
knowledge that my previous treatment of the land must have sur- 
charged it with potash, to say nothing of the store of potash 
naturally contained in the soil. But after this time I have occa- 
