The Cook County Herald

The top picture shows a field of corn near Momence, Ill. The two men are standing where one kind of fertilizing stopped and another began. The part to the left was fertilized with barnyard manure; the part to the right with potash. Evidently the barnyard manure did not contain as much potassium as the crop required. The second picture shows plot 5 on the experimental field near Momence. It has received potassium only for five years, and has an average of 43 bushels of corn per acre during that time. The lower cut is a companion picture and shows plot 3, only a few feet from the other plot. This plot has received $90 worth of nitrogen in five years and has produced at the rate of 2¼ bushels per acre. The soil is very rich in nitrogen but needs potassium.

TESTING TO KNOW WHEN SOILS NEED POTASSIUM

Interesting Experiments Being Conducted on "Kankakee Marshes" Near Momence, Ill.

For several years the University of Illinois has been conducting field experiments throughout the state, for the purpose of determining the needs of the soil in different localities and also for the purpose of demonstrating to the farmers the needs of their soils. One of these experimental fields is near Momence and is located on what are commonly called the "Kankakee marshes."

The experiment is now in its fifth year and has proved of wonderful interest. A representative of the Farmers' Review recently visited this field in company with Prof. Hopkins, of the state university and a committee of observation from the Illinois farmers' institute.

The soil is rich in nitrogen and has a fair supply of phosphorus, but the amount of potassium contained in it is very small. But this fact has not prevented the farmers from applying dried blood to similar land in the locality. Now dried blood is a valuable fertilizer because it is rich in nitrogen, but it certainly cannot affect land that has in it more nitrogen than the crops can possibly use.

To demonstrate this to the farmers one plot of this soil was set aside to receive nothing but nitrogen in the form of blood. Dried blood costs about $45 per ton. This lot was given an application of this fertilizer at the rate of 800 pounds to the acre.

It has had five annual applications, and has therefore received at the rate of two tons of dried blood to the acre.

That is an expense of $90. Four crops of corn have been gathered and the yield has aggregated nine bushels per acre, or an average of 2¼ bushels per acre. Figuring the corn at 40 cents a bushel the annual return would be 90 cents per acre; while the 800 pounds of fertilizer applied each year would be worth $18. This experiment should be taken home to every farmer who has formed the habit of applying fertilizers without knowing what elements the soils need or what elements of fertility the fertilizers contain.

This season, the plot above mentioned (No. 3) is almost bare ground on one half of it.

Plot No. 4 next to it had been fertilized with bone meal and phosphorus and gave a yield of 12 bushels per acre in four years, or three bushels per year. Had the crop been limited by phosphorus, the application of bone meal would have shown large results. As it was, the yield of corn on this plot was only at the rate of 12 bushels per acre in four years, or three bushels per year.

The plots three and four showed that neither nitrogen nor phosphorus was the limiting element.

Plot No. 5 had received potassium only. The yield in the four years aggregated 172 bushels per acre, or at the rate of 43 bushels per acre per year. This plot was near the other two and the difference was very remarkable. The corn on the plot that had received potassium stood seven feet high and was heavily eared.

Plot No. 6 had received nitrogen and phosphorus both. The aggregate yield for four years was seventy bushels, an average annual yield of 17½ bushels.

Plot No. 7 had received both nitrogen and potassium, and the yield in four years aggregated 164 bushels, or 41 bushels per acre. It will be noted that this combination of potassium and nitrogen gave less than potassium alone, as shown by plot 5.

Plot No. 8 had received potassium and phosphorus and gave a yield of 183 bushels in four years, or 45¾ bushels per acre per year.

Plot No. 9 had received all three fertilizers, potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen. The yield in four years was 176 bushels, or 44 bushels per acre.

The above experiments are very striking because conducted on land almost wholly deficient in one manurial element. Most experiments have to be made on land fairly well balanced in plant food and such soils give less striking results, though the results may be equally as important and no less convincing to the careful observer.

The results at Momence are however of such a positive nature that it would be impossible for any person to see them and not be converted to the idea of applying a food element found to be deficient in a soil.

Can Be Made Profitable.—Almost any branch of farm business can be made profitable if it has the right management.