The Republican journal., 1911-03-02
Home Mixed Fertilizers And
Experiments.

To THE EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL:
started with the idea of learning by
actual tests what would give best results
in my soil. The land chosen was in grass
and had been top-dressed two years be-
fore and set with young apple trees. l
plowed and prepared the ground and laid
off for the experiments thirty rows sew
enty-two feet long, three feet apart, and
dropped the seed fourteen inches apart
in the rows, making sixty-two seeds in
each row. Each row was 1900 part of
an acre. Or, in other words, two hundred
of these rows would have made an acre.
AS l used in my entire field crop only
one-half of ton of commercial fertilizer
per acre, used the same proportion in
these experiments, or five pounds in each
row, intending to compare the expert
ments with the general average of the
field crop. The general field crop aver
aged IS barrels per acre of marketable
potatoes and IL barrels of small pota-
toes. A potato as large as hens egg
passes for marketable size here.
Several of my experiments surpassed
the general average. No. % yielded an
average of nearly 80 barrels per acre,
and No. yielded over 81 barrels per
acre In Nos 81, %, % and "a l made
some scab tests, using in each row 5
pounds of commercial fertilizer out of
the barrels l had for the general field
crop, which is listed as per cent nitro
gen, 6 per cent phosphoric acid and 10
per cent potash. These experiment rows
ran east ard west. In Nos. 81, % and
"a | carefully selected scabby seed for
the east half and perfectly clean seed for
the west half. No. % was all scabby
seed, but the east half was treated with
formaldehyde. No. q had 1-2 pound of
paris green carefully mixed with the
fertilizer. The paris green killed every
seed, not sprout ever reached the top
of the ground. No. % had one pound of
common salt mixed with the fertilizer
IS hills grew in the east half of this row
/
this small number of hills the yield was
at the rate of 60 barrels per acre, and
not single scabby potato grew in the
entire row. No. "a had Ia pound of
powdered blue vitrol mixed with the fer
tilizer. Twenty-one hills grew in the
east half and ten of the potatoes were
scabby. Twenty hills grew in the west
half where the clean seed were planted
and fifteen of the potatoes were scabby.
The yield was at the rate of so barrels
per acre.
ment and was very careful that every
seed had at least one good live eye in it,
and the number Of seed that failed to
come was surprising, 81 good seed were
put into every row, IA inches apart. 81
seed grew in row No. 26, and in no other
row did so many of the seed come. In
this row l put no fertilizing material
whatever. l simply put the seed into
the bare furrow and covered them, and |
did not expect this row to yield anything
larger than peas, but it yielded by actual
weight 30 pounds Of potatoes, 20 pounds
of which were marketable. One acre at
that rate is SO ID barrels. If an acre Of
naked ground without barn dressing or
commercial fertilizer will yield Sc barrels
Of potatoes, we sometimes pay pretty
big price for the fertilizer, considering
the number of barrels above Sc that we
get with the fertilizer. l have raised as
low as 40 barrels on an acre with 500
worth of fertilizer, when the market
value of the potatoes was s. per barrel.
1t looks as though l paid 500 to the fer
tiliZer company for 10 barrels of pota-
toes, and had to dig them myself. Now
in regard to row No. %, where the east
half. was treated with formaldehyde:
There were no scabby potatoes in the
east half, but there were "a scabby 20
tatoes in the west half, which all grew
In three hills, which hills We're together.
Only ten hills lived and grew in the east
half, and % hills in the west half. 1t
Will NC oSCil IlIdL WIllle LIE 1OTUldlQe0yOG
treatment of seed may be perfectly sue
cessful in killing all scab; in my trial it
must have killed many of the seed also.
Scabby seed seldom produces scabby po-
tatoes.
We have all been told that what we
are suffering for is more nitrate of soda
in our potato fertilizers. 1 have tried it
for grass top-dressing and was pleased
with the results, and have been led to
believe that it at least gave the potato
tops luxuriant growth.
Row No. II was dressed with pounds
of nitrate of soda. The result was that
only 20 hills grew, and these made very
pindling growth. 1t yielded just mar
ketable potatoes and 40 small potatoes
weighed the proceeds from every row
carefully and found that this row yielded
at the rate of barrels per acre.
As nitrate of soda looks like salt and
is called Gillian saltpeter, decided to
dress row No. 10 with five pounds of
Liverpool salt. Just IL hills lived and