258 THU CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



from the standpoint of early crops. I do not want to get into 

 the market when the other fellow has been there before me and 

 got the money. It is the man who has got the market who 

 makes a success of vegetable growing. Now, the point is, 

 what can we do to get the very earliest vegetables so as to get 

 the market? Friends, I do not use a pound of commercial fer- 

 tilizer, and haven't in nearly twenty years. How can we, then, 

 in order to get a good early stand, get the growth, reach the 

 market, and do it cheaper than the other man. The earlier 

 w^e can get our product on the market and the cheaper we can 

 raise our products by the package, or the bushel, or the barrel, 

 as the case may be, the more profit we can get out of the mar- 

 ket. Xow I submit this proposition to you, and it seems to me 

 it is a rational one. If' you have a good cover crop you do 

 not need much animal manure. Plow that under it to the 

 usual depth. That is all you want so far as the top of the 

 soil is concerned. Never turn up a great deal of the subsoil 

 at one time. Turn it under. We want to get that root system 

 where it belongs — down where the moisture is, down where 

 it will get the benefit of the tillage, and out of the way of tlie 

 heating of the sun the latter part of the season. Next, scatter 

 "broadcast all over the soil a mixture of three parts of add 

 phosphate to one of potash mixed together. Now that is a 

 hank deposit, friends. All of you farmers like money in the 

 hank. That is a deposit for those plants to draw on. That 

 is- a deposit that the plants can draw on from time to time 

 as they need it. When the plant first starts its roots it is there 

 to build up the structure of the wood and fibre of the plant. 

 It is there. The goodness from it will reach into the soil and 

 reach those tiny rootlets lying close to the surface. You get 

 it at all times. Now when you are trying to encourage the 

 growth of the roots of the plants use nitrogenous fertilizer 

 mainlv, such as nitrate of soda and such things as that. Use 

 it because it is cheaper. Secondly, because you get more back 

 for the pounds that you have applied. That makes it cheaper 

 from another standpoint. Regarding the returns in plant food 



