Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-05-03

unleacneu aSneS, 6O DuSnelS per acre, gave
80 "a bushels stable manure 46 12 hen
manure 43 IA and night soil 30 So bush
els. The effect of nitrogen was unexpect-
ed. Comparing the plots that had nitro
gen in various amounts and forms added
to the mixed minerals with those that had
mixed minerals alone, the nitrogen (''com-
plete" fertilizer) plots yielded less in seven
cases out of nine, and in the two in which
there was an increase with the nitrogen,
this was far from sufficient to pay the cost.
The potash salt and the mixture Of that
and superphosphate brought good yields
in spite of the cold and backward season,
The nitrogen was used at a loss in every
case.
RESULTS OF OTHER EXPERIMENTS.
|. Fortunately Col. Mead's experiments is
not the only one of the sort we have to
judge from. Like trials in 1878 and 1879
under the auspices Of the New Hampshire
and Maine Agricultural Colleges, and in
Connecticut, also, have brought results
which, though varying in DETAIL are similar
in substance. The average yield with the
mixed mineral fertilizers in all these "spe-
cial corn experiments" amounts to trile
over so bushels Of shelled corn per acre.
In the general experiments described in
the previous articles, a mixture of 200 lbs.
muriate of potash and 300 pounds super
phorphate brought on the average Of fifty
fhrao 9 in Iyor, oh
AZ bushels of shelled corn per acre. The
especial experiments, however, seem a
fairer test of what the fertilizers may do
because while made on Vermont soils and
and in good seasons and bad they were on
soils and in ATTITUDES fit for corn, while
many of the general experiments were not.
= THE OUTCOME OF THE EXPERIMENTS
WITH CORN.
Taking all the experiments together, the
nitrogen increased the crop enough to pay
its cost in thirteen trials out Of ninety-six.
The pecuniary loss rose and fell with the
amount OF nitrogen used. With the "min-
trife less on the aveaage than with farm
manures, and the crop gathered from the
air some 65 pounds of nitrogen per acre,
which in ordinary fertilizers would cost
| from twelve to fifteen dollars.
AS regards the effects of the fertilizing
materials separately, the superphophate
was generally and the muriate of potash
and the muriate of potash often profitable,
while nitrogen rarely paid it cost. In bad
seasons all the materials, including farm
manures, frequently failed and. ON some
soils, the same was true even when the
season was favorable. The most effective
material depended upon soil and season.
These experiments imply that corn does
not generally get much help from nitrogen
in fertilizers that it has somehow or other
the power to gather pretty fair supply
| for itself from soil and air, or both, and
that in this respect it comes closer to the
| legumes than the cereals that it is more
like clover than wheat-that, in short, corn
may be classed with the ''renovating'
crops. So weighty question, however
demands more investigation at the same
time the results already obtained are
very important.
PRACTICAL NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. CORN TIC
MAKE MANURE.
The same valuations of digestiable fooC
ingredients that would make a ton OF
ordinary hay worth $l1.00 and a bushel Of
shelled corn 60 cents-would bring a tor
of well-cured corn-stalks at only 5000 pei
ton and 3-4 tons to 80 bushels of shelleC
corn which came with the mixture of 800
pounds superphosphate and $50 pounds
muriate of potash, the value of the croI
would be $4,000.
Surprising the crop to be fed out upor
the farm, two-thirds of its nitrogen, phos
phoric and potash, reckoned at prices or
dinarily paid for them in equally valuable
forms in commercial fertilizers, would bt
worth 5000, the cost of the fertilizers
The fortified crop probably leaves thu
land in about as good condition as it wa:
before the manure, well husbanded, more
than pays for the fertilizer, and we have
the value Of the crop for fodder in return
for the rent of an acre of land of raising
the corn.