Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-16
much practical bearing on the mys- tery of why and how the crop grows.

much practical bearing on the mys-
 tery of why and how the crop grows. Nevertheless, in a Iaudable desire to
 get ali the light it can on this puzzling problem, the New York station has been conducting series of experi-
 ments. It took nlne different kinds of soil from as many different farms,
 analysed portions of them to deter
 mine exactly what elements they con- tained, and then, for two years raised test crops of barley on them, without
 any fertilization and watered solely
 with distilled water (to obviate the
 possible introduction of some fertiIiz-
 ing impurity in the water)
 Some of the results are rather cur
 ious.
 Naturally the soils varied very
 widely in composition. They ra,i from
 64 to 90 Der cent silicon,-tha latter
 being sandy loam from Lo-,g Island.
 The water and organic mattlr in them
 ve-.sd from two and a quarter to eight
 and quarter per cent, the lowest in
 this respect being again tlat Long
 Island soil. In nitrogen they ran
 from .063 to PAP per cent, Long Is-
 land again furnishing the lowest. In
 potash they ran from .27 to 1.95 per
 cent and in phosphoric acid from .12
 to "A per cent, Longs Island again be-
 ing lowest in both. Naturally, you'd
 expect this Long Island soil to pro-
 ouce pretty poor crops, unfertilizcd.
 And that is just what happened. In
 two years the total weight of the bar
 ley crop its test rlat produced was only 14 grams against a total of 161 grams yielded by the similar test plat of a yellow clay loam iron, Chautau- qua county which contained three times as much potash, twice as much phosphoric acid and almost three ac Y1ff c.. these two tests were involved, tnc in dieation that the crop wanted more nitrogen, potash and phosphate than go naturally with Long Island sandy 1oam is strong
 But now observe some of the sur priscS Of the teSt:-
 A limestone soil from Phelps, N. Y.. though containing less than half the nitrogen and only about three quarters the phoSphates Of a sandstone soil from Delaware county produced more than five times as heavy crop \ clay ioam from near Ithaca. though containing less than half the potash than heavier clay loanl from near Geneva. produced one-third bigger crops for two years. 4 test plat with only .72 per cent es potash produced just double the yield in two years of similar plat containing 1.07 of pot l.. lime produced twice as heavy a yield as one with 2.98 per cent of lime. A plat with only .065 per cent of nitro gen produced third bigger yield .han one wieh .1So per cent. of nitrogen.
 In fact, the careful tables of the ex- perimenter show that rot a single one Of the eleven fertilizing elements his analysis disclosed in the various soils bore any traceable relation whatever to comparative yield.
 But greater surprises, yet, remain to be indicated.
 The same crop, barley, was growr. Tor two successive years in these same soll-plats, both years without any fer tilization whatever, even the water used being distilled to prevent acci- dental addition of some microscopical On one plat the first years yield was II grams: the second years 37 grams. On still Another, the first years yield was IS grams, the years 79 grams. On six of the nine test plats the second years crop without any fertilization, either year. was larger than the first years eropi Moreover, the soil for one Of these plats was taken from a field which had been cleared eighty years, and or, which, during all that time, no fertil- ger, either stable manure or commer- cial, had ever been used Its previous yields had been from 100 to 150 bush els Of potatoes per acre; 30 bushels pats; 12 to 15 bushels buckwneat, and about a ton of hay.
 Tile yellow clay loalm from near ithaca, which Is clearly a sediment deposited in the quiet waters of glacial lake. produced the heaviest to- al yield of all, 161 grams of dry crop. The Delaware county soil, made up rom disintegrated sandstone pro- lueed the very smallest crop of all. 1-2 grams. Yet the nitrogen-phos- ohorus- potash content of the two soils vas almost identical. The Ithaca dirt contained .1sf per cent. of nitrogen, he Delaware county dirt 1855; the thaca dirt A per cent. of phosphoric lcid. the Delaware county .22 per ,ent.; the Mhssca dirt 80 per cent. of | ,otash, the Delaware county ,7S per ,ent. And yet the barley production | vas eighteen times that of the other,
 Can you explain it?
 Can you even get any dim glimmer | # suspicion why Tweedledun should l ,e so like Tweedledee in makeup and Q absolutely unlike in performance?
 Certainly, these tests show that no | laboratory analysis of the soils to find | what was in them gave any indication | f what they would do with and for a l rop.
 It looks very much as if we farm l ITS would have to stick to the old l ule- which consists of "cut- | ndtry and then eut-and- try again."
 While 1t may be a matter of some 1 uriosity to know what our dirt is l made of, our practical interest lies in | lndiHg out what 1t will do. And the | what 1t IS made of daesn't | een to help much in finding out that | ast,-what 1t will do for us.
 In nay mind it all simrners down to | he idea which I have talked, over and | ver again, till you're probably tired | f hearing it, viz. that each field must I e treated as separate problem and | sked, not only once but many times, | fE.ht it wants t& grow and what 1t eeds in the way of assistance
 It will answer honestly every time. But you've got to put the questions | nteiiigently, and you've got to use | ome brains and rely d good deal on E xperienee to read the answer right.
 You put a spoonful of soda into E lass of any old vinegar, made out of E nything and bought anywhere. and E I'll ffEz up and feam over But you ant put 8 ton of fertilizer, regard ass Of what it is on patch of soil, I eearaless of what it is, and have it H tsrif1, |