No. «. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 331 



is what he got. I wish you could see those plants in the field where 

 you can look down on the tomato plants and see 40 or 50 ripe speci- 

 mens one one plant, where it has not been picked, the first of Septem- 

 ber, and everyone of them perfectly round, smooth and sizable toma- 

 toes. This shows a crate of tomatoes in the college greenhouse. We 

 have found that the Globe and Bonny Buster were the most satis- 

 factory varieties for growing under glass. Now going out to the 

 fields again, one of the most important experiments we have made 

 is with asparagus and the next picture will show the result of this 

 work. I don't think you can read the figures back there, but I 

 wanted to stop long enough to tell you just what this means. We 

 have made the experiment witli two varieties. We made the planting 

 seven years ago and graded the roots into three different sizes, large, 

 medium and small roots. The interesting thing about this experi- 

 ment is that the small root and small plant that came from those 

 small roots have never caught up with the medium size and that 

 the medium sizes have never caught up to the large ones. Let's 

 look at the returns first. This represents the largest root. We made 

 the first harvest in 1910, and those roots produced at the rate of 

 |160. to the acre. Now, with the medium sized root, the No. 2, the 

 yield or returns were considerably smaller, with one or two excep- 

 tions. The first year we got a little more from No. 2 roots, but 

 from there on the No. 2 returns were smaller. Now, you will note 

 down here that on these small roots the showing is still more marked, 

 but you will note that those small roots have never caught up with 

 the large ones. If you want to grow asparagus and want to plant 

 1,000 roots, grow the 3,000 yourself from selected seed, select 1,000 

 out of the 3,000 for planting, and your returns will be large. 



Now, a little about our orchard experiments. We saw awhile ago 

 that in certain orchards of Pennsylvania, manure can be applied to 

 better advantage than anything else, and in other orchards, commer- 

 cial fertilizers. In this experiment in Warren county neither money 

 nor effort has made any appreciable showing. In this orchard, 

 which is in Lawrence county, during six years, nitrogen and phos- 

 phoric acid has given increased yield, or has given a yield of 305 

 bushels to the acre. You will note here that those trees on this side 

 have been fertilized with nitrogen and phosphoric acid aurl those 

 other trees have not been fertilized. These trees are evenly loaded 

 with fruit, while there is practically no fruit on this side. The 

 results have been unusually striking in Lawrence county, showing 

 the value of nitrogen and phosphoric acid. This experiment in Bed- 

 ford county — the results have been equally striking or practically so. 

 We have harvested 335 bushels in the seventh year, to the acre, show- 

 ing the result of nitrogen and phosphoric acid. This is a Baldwin 

 tree seven years of age. We topworked it on Northern Spy and at 

 the seventh year picked a bushel and a half from the tree. Now, we 

 wanted to draw out here a few lessons, which I think are of unusual 

 importance to Pennsylvania fruit growers. Between those apple 

 trees we are growing potatoes. In the experimental orchard at 

 State College, on limestone soil we have found out that the apple 

 trees, Baldwins, Stamens, Winesaps and some other varieties, that 

 the apple trees have been growing where we are growing potatoes 

 between the rows, have made 12% better growth than where we have 



