BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 313 
square H, barley, really cost comparatively little money. There 
would be needed for an acre of land, of the mixture used on square H, 
barley : — 
Ofwoodashes . . 4444 g9rms. X 162 = 719.927 kilos. = 15834 lbs. 
em werayes ("S200 5) &K 162:== 502.200 |, = 11054, 
The cost per acre would have been: — 
1584 lbs. (= 33 bushels) wood-ashes . . (@ $0.30 = $9.90 
Mueeieuan scrap’... . . .« (a13.00 per ton =" 9.95 
$19.85 
The meagre crops yielded by squares X, Y, and Z, that were dressed 
with oyster-shell lime, or with crushed oyster shells, show how little 
permanent significance carbonate of lime has by itself upon a soil 80 
poor and dry as this. 
It is to be regretted that the soil on parts of the squares (J, JJ, K, 
and KK.) allotted to the experiments with bone-black should have 
been exceptionally hard and unsuited for the growth of plants, as has 
been mentioned on page 128. For my own part I have never had 
any reason to doubt that in the great majority of cases it would be 
much better practice to subject spent bone-black to fermentation in a 
heap of composted peat than to apply it directly to dry land in its 
crude condition. A conspicuous method of French agriculture ‘that 
has been alluded to on page 269, seems to point very clearly to the 
conclusion that spent bone-black might be used with advantage by our 
New England farmers as a component of their compost heaps. Some 
experiments that I have myself made on a small scale under glass 
point in the same direction. But I would nevertheless have been 
glad to test the action of the crude material (spent bone-black) fairly 
upon the field, as contrasted with that of the other sources of phos- 
phoric acid. The fact that the experimental crops grew well enough 
in 1874, as in 1873, upon parts of each of the squares that had 
been dressed with the spent bone-black showed very clearly that the 
land was in bad condition, and that the manures applied to it were not 
in a position where they could be fairly tested. 
TRIALS OF SINGLE FERTILIZERS. 
The experiments with farm —and with stable — manure and a few of 
the trials with single fertilizers, such as had been made in 1871, 1872, 
VOL. I. 40 
