Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-05-07

pay the cost.
The potash salt and the mixture of that
and superphosphate brought good yields in
spite of the remarkably cold and backward
season. The nitrogen was used at a loss in
every case.
RESULTS OF OTHER EXPERIMENTS.
Fortunately Col. Mead's experiment 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, al
so, have brought results which, though vary
ing in detail are similar in substance. The
average yield with the mixed mineral fer
tilizers in all these Especial corn experiments"
amounts to triAe over 30 bushels of shelled
corn per acre
In the general experiments described in the
previous articles, mixture of 200 pounds
muriate of potash and 800 pounds superphos-
phate brought, on the average of fifty-three
experiments in various States, about ~ bush
els of shelled corn per acre. The special
experiments, however, seem fairer test of
what the fertilizers may do, because, while
made on Vermont soils and in good seasons
and bad they were on soils and in lattudes fit
for corn, while many of the general expert
ments 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 mineral fer
tilizer alone the yield was fair, a trihe less on
the average than with farm manures, and the
crop gathered from the soil and air some Gj
pounds of nitrogen per acre, which in ordi-
nary fertilizers would cost from twelve to fif-
teen dollars.
As regards the effects of the fertilizing ma
terials separately, the superphosphate was
generally and the muriate of potash often
profitable, while nitrogen rarely paid its 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 docs
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 or air, or BOTH and that in this re-
spect it comes closer to the legumes than the
cereals that it is more like clover than wheat
that, in short, corn may be cassed with
the 'renovating" crops. SO weighty ques-
ton, however, demands more investigation
at the same time the results already obtained
are capable Of very important
PRACTICAL Ap1IIcATIoN-BA RAISING CORN TO
MAKE MANURE.
The same valuations of digestible food-in-
gradients that would make a ton of ordinary
hay worth Sll and bushel of shelled corn
80 cents-woud bring a ton of well-cured
corn-stalks at IS. Reckoning the stalks at
only 50 per ton and II tons to the 80 bushels
of shelled corn which came with the mixture
of 800 pounds superphosphate and $50 pounds
muriate of potash, the value of the crop
would be $1,000.
Surprising the crop to be fed out upon the
farm two-thirds of its nitrogen, phosphoric
and potash, reckoned at prices ordinarily
paid for them i'll equally valuable forms in
commercial fertilizers, would be worth 80,
the cost of the fertilizer. The fertlized crop
probably leaves the land in about as good con-
dition as it was 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 and
the labor of raising the corn.
IN CONCLUSION.
The dispensation of an all-wise Providence
which has made soils and seasons to differ,
renders formula for corn or any other crop
irrational. We simply tell the farmers of
Vermont what their fellow farmers have been
doing in cooperation with the college, and
add that, il these experiments are u be takeH
as quite.
/. In the large majority of cases where
any manure will bring good crop of corn, a
fair yield may be expected with some such a
mixture as the one named, 300 pounds super
phosphate and $50 pounds of muriate of pot
ash.
,. BY the aid of this fertilizer the corn
gathers large quantity of nitrogen which is
very important in the fodder and greatly en-
riches the manure.
SHALL WE BUY OUR CORN or RAISE IT OUR
SELVES?
j. Corn produced IN this way costs much
less than Western corn. Fed to stock and
made into manure, it does much more to en-
rich the land, because of the stalks which we
do not get with the Western corn,
I. Either the unanimous testimony of
these experiments by progressive farmers on
their farms is wrong, or corn can, by aid of
artificial fertilizers, be grown with profit in
| Vermont
>. The best evidence at hand implies that,
in most cases, the best way is to apply light
dressing of farm manure and supplement with
proper commercial fertilizer, superphos-
plate or muriate of potash or both.
6. We suggest to farmers to try corn
| growing in these ways If they will report
their experience to the college it will thank
them and do its best to make the results
known and useful through the State.