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Fertilizer Tests

Categories: THE NEED OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS

Every farmer should conduct some fertilizer tests

for himself. It is only the soil itself that can make an adequate reply

to a question regarding its needs. The test should be made under

conditions furnishing evenness in the soil, and it should be continued

for years. There is pleasure to an intelligent farmer in such

questioning of his soil, and only in this way can assurance be obtained

that the investment in fertili
ers is the wisest that can be planned

for the farm.



There are only three plant constituents to be tested, but they must be

used in combination as well as singly. A soil that is deficient in the

three may not give any return from potash alone, and usually does not,

although it may give a marked increase from use of phosphoric acid

alone. The plats may be eight rods long and one rod wide, containing

each one twentieth of an acre, and having strips two feet wide

separating them. The following chart suggests quantities of fertilizers

to be used on the one-twentieth acre plats, 10 in number:



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Nothing.

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5 pounds nitrate of soda.

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18 pounds 14 per cent acid phosphate.

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4 pounds muriate of potash.

+---------------------------------------+

Nothing.

+---------------------------------------+

5 pounds nitrate of soda.

18 pounds 14 per cent acid phosphate.

+---------------------------------------+

5 pounds nitrate of soda.

4 pounds muriate of potash.

+---------------------------------------+

18 pounds 14 per cent acid phosphate.

4 pounds muriate of potash.

+---------------------------------------+

5 pounds nitrate of soda.

18 pounds 14 per cent acid phosphate.

4 pounds muriate of potash.

+---------------------------------------+

Nothing.

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