280 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 171. 



Inorganic Composition of Asparagus Roots — Concluded. 

 Roots of 1910. 



There was no specific effect of fertilizers observable in the ash con- 

 stituents, except on plots 1 and 40 in the 1908 series, and plot 9 of the 

 1910 series. Soda was notably lower in the roots from the first-named 

 plots, which had received no nitrate of soda, than in all other roots which 

 had been dressed with that salt. The composite sample representing the 

 last-named plot, which had received no potash salt, showed a much lower 

 percentage of potassium oxide than any other sample of that year, and a 

 small increase in sodium oxide. 



The most notable fact observable in the ash constituents was the high 

 percentage of sulfuric acid relatively to phosphoric acid. Withholding 

 acid phos'phate from plot 5 had no apparent effect in reducing either the 

 phosphoric acid or the sulfuric acid in the sample from that area. 



Total Nitrogen in the Dry Matter of Asparagus Roots. 

 Roots of 1908. 



