A CHEMICAL STUDY OF THE ASPARAGUS PLANT. 293 



there were seven consecutive plants to the rod. The stalks were cut 

 level with the ground and weighed. 



This work was done in the last week in October when the sap had mostly 

 left the stalks. 



The weights per plot were as follows : — 



Weights of Tops per Rod of Roiv, Autumn of 1912 (Pounds). 



Plot 1, without nitrate of soda, . . . . . . . .3.5 



Plot 3, complete fertilizer, . . . . . . . . .5.5 



Plot 5, without acid phosphate, . . . . . . . .4.0 



Plot 7, complete fertilizer, . . . . . . . . .4.0 



Plot 9, without muriate of potash, . . . . . . . .4.0 



Plot 11, complete fertilizer, ......... 6.5 



Plot 34, complete fertilizer, . . . . . . . . .4.0 



Plot 40, without nitrogen, . . . . . . . . .3.0 



Average, . . . . . . . . . . .4.3 



At the rate of 250 plants per plot, or 5,000 plants per acre, these results 

 from 7 plants would give 3,071 pounds of dying tops per acre. Samples of 

 stalks gathered early in November at Amherst contained 49 per cent, of 

 dry matter, by which it is estimated that there were about 1,500 pounds 

 per acre of dry vegetable matter added to the soil of the asparagus field 

 per year. 



Rousseaux and Brioux ^ report, as the result of five different fields in 

 France, a range of from 891 to 2,128 kilos per hectare for the dry matter 

 in the crops of the tops removed in late autumn from the fields, in accord- 

 ance with French practice, "^heir average dry matter per hectare was 

 1,579 kilos, or about 1,400 pounds, per acre. 



In percentage of soil per acre this amount of tops is really small. On 

 such sandy soil as the Concord field the tops would be worked into the 

 surface 4 inches, or mixed with approximately 1,000,000 pounds of soil, 

 which would enrich the soil with not more than .15 per cent, of organic 

 matter. Nevertheless, several of the best plots in the experiment field 

 have received no more organic matter than is contained in the tops, 

 which is a good illustration of the effectiveness of small annual additions 

 of organic matter to our soils. 



Relation of Asparagus Roots to Weights of Stalks. 



It was expected that there would be a close relationship found between 

 the size of roots from a plot and the total weight of stalks cut from it, and 

 an attempt was made to correlate the weights of sample roots in 1910 

 with the weights of crops over a period of five years. 



In the phosphate group of plots, 5, 6, 7 and 8, the smallest roots were 

 obtained from the plot that received no phosphate in the top-dressing; 

 but the crop jdelds were not invariably the lowest in the series. Plot 8, 

 which received the maximum dressing of acid phosphate, yielded much 



I Annal. d. Sci. Agron., 1906, pp. 188-326. 



