132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



class possessing high market value and low fertility value, 

 the conditions are very different. Here the profits will de- 

 pend not only upon total yield, but upon the quality of the 

 crop, which is measured in so marked a degree by rapidity 

 of growth. It is not a question of supplying the needs of the 

 plants only, but rather of furnishing them with such an 

 abundance or such an excess of plant food as to absolutely 

 guarantee them under any reasonable conditions against a 

 shortage in this respect. That is, we cannot be guided by the 

 possible removal of constituents by the crop itself as to the 

 amount that shall be su])plied. It is required that we shall 

 not only take into account the characteristics of the crops 

 themselves, — that is, the time of growth, the object of the 

 growth, etc., — but the possibilities of periods during these 

 times of growth when they shall require to have at their 

 disposal an excessive amount of available food, in order to 

 enable them to make up any losses in growth that may have 

 occurred because of unfavorable conditions. 



We have many examples of the importance of this point 

 in the use of commercial fertilizers for this class of money 

 crops, as asparagus, early potatoes, cabbage, celery, early 

 beets, turnips, as well as the successful application of the 

 principle in general crops of this class ; the value of the crop 

 in many instances being enhanced 50 or 100 per cent, or 

 even more, because of the extra addition of 500 pounds of 

 commercial fertilizer per acre. The best asparagus grower 

 in our State, and, so far as I know, as good as in any State, 

 whose returns are marvelous, informs me that every pound 

 of fertilizer added to his soil in excess of 1,500 pounds per 

 acre and up to 3,000 pounds, pays him an enormous rate on 

 the investment, — he secures not only the highest yield, 

 but the very best quality, both in respect to size and edible 

 quality. His crop is in a sort insured against unfavorable 

 conditions. 



As to the special fertilizers required much has been writ- 

 ten, but in our experience the same principle holds true as in 

 the case of the field crops, namely, that a general market- 

 garden fertilizer, made up of the most concentrated and most 

 available forms, shall be applied, and then fortify the specific 



