312 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
manuring, no matter how diverse the kinds of fertilizers or how abun- 
dant their quantity. By resorting to processes of tillage, such as 
trenching or subsoil plowing, by which the soil could be deepened and 
its power of lifting, of absorbing, and of holding water increased, or 
by irrigating the land with water outright, it would of course be possi- 
ble to bring the soil into such condition that it might bear larger crops 
and utilize more manure. Something might perhaps be done by judi- 
cious mulching also. ‘Thus, in view of the mulching property of stable 
manure, it is not unlikely that a certain amount of such manure used 
in conjunction with a potassic fertilizer, or with a mixture of potassic, 
phosphatic, and nitrogenous fertilizers might have yielded a somewhat 
better crop in the dry seasons of 1873 and 1874 than either of the 
mixtures of fertilizers that were actually used. 
The inutility of manuring the soil of the field so heavily as has been 
done with the niixtures above described is still further illustrated by 
the results of a blunder made upon plot Hin the spring of 1873, My 
original intention was to grow ruta-bagas upon the square now marked 
H 1 on the diagram, and the comparatively large amount of mixed 
fertilizers actually put upon that square was meant to support a ruta- 
baga crop. But, through inadvertence, barley was sown upon the 
square now marked 1, and ruta-bagas were sown upon the square 
now marked 3, that had been manured for barley. Thus it happened 
that the barley crop that grew upon square H received 4444 grms, 
of wood-ashes instead of 2778 grms., as was intended. ‘The error 
having once been committed, it was thought best to persist in it. 
Hence, the square H, barley, got the same excessive dose of wood- 
ashes in 1874 that it had received in 1873. It is true that the crop 
obtained from this over-manured square was one of the best, both in’ 
1873 and in 1874; but it was nevertheless no better on the whole than 
the crop from square G, which received an analogous mixture of fer- 
‘tilizers, in much smaller quantity. It will be noticed on the other 
hand (page 123), that the comparatively small quantity of fertilizers 
put upon the ruta-baga square H in 1873 failed to yield so large a 
crop as was obtained from square G and square GG. Only about half 
as much potash as was intended was really put upon the ruta-baga 
square H in 1873. 
As illustrating the merits of wood-ashes and of fish scrap, it may be 
remarked, in passing, that the heavy dressing of manure applied to 
