
19 
The practice of adding to such manurial materials of the farm as 
stable manure, vegetable compost, etc., single commercial manurial 
substances that will enrich them in the direction desirable for the par- 
ticular crop to be raised does not yet receive that degree of general 
attention which it deserves. In the case of asparagus, an addition of 
potash in the form of muriate or sulphate of potash, or of phosphoric 
acid in the form of fine ground South Carolina or Florida soft phos- 
phate, etc., will in many instances not only improve their general 
fitness as complete manure, but quite frequently permit a material 
reduction in the amount of barnyard manure ordinarily considered 
sufficient to secure satisfactory results. 
An average of several analyses of barnyard manure. 

| Pounds 

Constituents. | Per cent. | per ton. 
= ae | | = 
| 
DLN i aa Ss Ge pe OS BOS ERO Eee oS TEs SNe CIS hs ae Se ee | 67. 00 1, 340.0 
INNIMOS ENS Soe ise. cn 2 cose oc bo UEC OS cB Cr aie eee Uae eee a aren aerate Set oe | 52 | 10.4 
PDH AS PECII RLU eee See tee an oes oN Rake Stn osinc ec cclasle coucesuuescmes estes | .56 | Tal 
bg olonle nate) 6 kee Gees Soe Soapeei CRESS 50 SSE Cee E DSU paneer eas SSO OaES A aee AE | .39 | 7.8 

The average barnyard manure contains a larger percentage of nitro- 
gen, as compared with its potash and phosphoric acid, than is generally 
considered economical. An addition of from 30 to 40 pounds of muriate 
of potash and of 100 pounds of fine ground natural phosphates (soft 
Florida or South Carolina floats) per ton of barnyard manure would 
greatly increase its value as an efficient and economical fertilizer. 
Judging by the amount used and by the expressed preference of 
growers, stable manure free from straw or other long bedding is the 
most desirable for use upon beds. Besides stable manure, farmyard, 
sheep, hogpen, and henhouse manure, and night soil are also available 
when used in compost; and if the compost has been lying long enough 
to have caused the materials to be reduced to a uniform, well-mired 
mass there is nothing better for use at the time of transplanting to 
cover the young plants. 
In addition to these farm manures, chemical or commercial fertilizers 
are also available and are used alone, in connection with stable manure, 
and in alternation with the same. Of late years these are being more 
and:more used by growers who are without a large number of farm 
animals and so far removed from large cities that they find stable 
manure too expensive, especially as the only advantage of stable 
manure over these is the humus it adds to the soil and its beneficial 
effect upon the mechanical condition of the soil, as already explained. 
The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Stations, in planting a trial 
bed of asparagus, used, ‘‘April 11, 400 pounds per acre of a mixture 
containing 150 pounds nitrate of soda, 400 pounds ground bone, 250 
pounds bone black, and 200 pounds of potash, and on May 8 another 
application of 600 pounds per acre of the same mixture, thus supply- 
ing in all 41 pounds nitrogen, 100 pounds potash, and 120 pounds phos- 
