Food for likely to be so useful an adjunct as where commercial 



_ fertilizers, containing high percentages of minerals, 



S 2 have been used, as it must be remembered here, as 



always, that Nitrogen is not a complete food, but an 



element of food, and cannot exert its full effect except 



in the presence of the necessary supply of the mineral 



elements. 



In the early spring, as soon as the 



IfeinNttrate land is fit to cu ! tivate > tne beds are 

 ploughed or cultivated, throwing the 



earth away from the crowns, and commercial fertili- 

 zers, rich in Nitrogen 5 to 6 per cent. are applied, 

 over the row, at the rate of 800 to 1,000 pounds per 

 acre. As asparagus is a perennial, and the growth 

 in the spring depends largely upon the food stored 

 up in the roots in the fall, the effect of the spring 

 application is not so noticeable in the early cuttings, 

 but materially benefits the later cutting. Commercial 

 beds are usually cut for about two and one-half months, 

 and this long period of continuous removal of shoots 

 reduces the vitality of the crowns, and because the 

 vigor of growth and size of the tops measures, to a 

 marked degree, the size of the next crop, as soon as 

 cutting is finished from 250 to 400 pounds per acre of 

 Nitrate of Soda should be applied. The roots immedi- 

 ately absorb this available form of Nitrogen, which 

 stimulates and strengthens the plant, and enables it to 

 appropriate the excess of minerals which have been 

 applied, and, as a consequence, a large, vigorous and 

 healthy growth of top is made, which not only results 

 in storing the food in the roots for use the next season, 

 but it enables the plant to resist the ravages of the rust. 

 There is no other form of Nitrogen that can be used or 

 other means by which this object can be so readily 

 accomplished as by a liberal supply of Nitrate of Soda, 

 and the result is, not only a larger yield, but a greater 

 proportion of large shoots, which increases the market 

 value of the crop; the growers who practice this system 

 have no difficulty in contracting their entire crop from 

 year to year at very remunerative prices. 



A careful study of the special needs 

 Jsary es. Q f pi ants S } 1OWS that there is no other 



