BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 133 
TRIALS OF SINGLE FERTILIZERS. 
The results of the trials of single fertilizers in 1873 will appear 
from the tables that are given below. The experiments were abso- 
lute repetitions of those of 1871 and 1872, with the exception that a 
considerable number of the latter were omitted altogether, such, for 
example, as those of Section DD, and a number of duplicates in C and 
CC. The reason of these omissions was that the experiments of 1871 
and 1872 had shown that no results commensurate with the labor 
that would have to be expended were to be expected from the further 
continuance of these particular trials. The land was prepared and 
planted as in 1872, and the fertilizers were bought and applied in 
the same way. The season of 1873 was remarkably unfavorable for 
all early crops, since a drought of almost unprecedented severity pre- 
vailed during May and June. In the latter part of July, on the con- 
trary, and through August and September, the season was highly 
favorable. As a consequence of these conditions the barley crop was 
completely ruined, the beans did fairly well, and those ruta-baga 
plants that had escaped the fly grew Inxuriantly on all the squares 
that could supply the necessary food. It should be said of this last 
crop that the seed employed this year was excellent, but it happened 
most unfortunately during the dry time that succeeded the moment 
of sowing (early in June) that the young plants were devastated by 
the turnip-fly to such an extent and so irregularly that the results 
obtained have comparatively little value. The harvesting of the 
beans was conducted with special care this year, with the view of 
avoiding a certain loss of leaves that occurred in 1872. The leaf- 
producing power of any given fertilizer is not only a matter of scien- 
tific interest in so far as it may serve to indicate the mode of action 
of the fertilizer ; it is a point of no small practical importance in a 
region devoted to the growth of forage. 
The weights of fertilizers used and of crops obtained will appear 
from the following tables : — 
