bushels of Charles Downings per acre, from a field manured with bone
and potash, so poor and worn-out that two years before it would only
produce six bushels of rye per acre. That land had no stable manure on
it, and if it was not the bone and potash that furnished food for the
berries, we would like to know what it was. The one mistake we have
made is, I think, in not using six or eight hundred pounds of fish
scrap or guano, and only 1,500 pounds of bone. The fish or guano,
being such quick-acting fertilizers, would give the plants a much
better start early in the season than would be the case if only the
bone and potash were used. We shall try it the coming spring. In
applying the potash great care should be taken to have it thoroughly
incorporated with the soil, it being only about 55 per cent actual
potash; the balance, being largely composed of salt, would, of course,
kill the roots of young plants if brought directly in contact with
them. In fields where we have used the potash, we have been troubled
with white grubs only to a very limited extent, while portions of the
same field where stable manure had been used were badly infested with
them, and while I do not think salt will drive them ail out of the
soil, I do believe it will do so to some extent. Besides the
fertilizers I have named, we have in the past six years experimented
in a small way with many others. Among them Stockbridge's strawberry
manure and Mapes' fruit and vine manures, but have never had as good
returns for the money invested as from the bone and potash; and yet,
while they have proved of such great value to us, I would not advise
you or any one to give up stable manure for them if you can get it at
the same cost per acre, but if you cannot, then I say try bone dust
and potash in a small way, until you learn just what _your soil_
wants, and then supply it, whether it be 500, 1,000, or 2,000 pounds
per acre."