162 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 162. 



The stimulation to rapid early development under discussion is es- 

 pecially important in the case of all crops with which it is for any reason 

 unusually difficult to secure a perfect stand, whether from a habit of 

 growth naturally slow and feeble at first, or from the fact that the seed- 

 lings are peculiarly subject to insect injury. The beet is an example of 

 the first; the Swedish turnip of the second. In the cultivation of either 

 table, sugar or mangel beets, and of all crops of the turnip or cabbage 

 family, the use of soluble phosphates is highly important to enable them 

 both to outgrow weeds and to withstand the attacks of flea beetles and 

 apluds. 



2. Increase in Tillering of Cereal Grains. — As cereal grains are quite 

 unimportant in our agriculture no direct observations which demonstrate 

 that the cereal grains tiller or "stool" more freely when soluble phos- 

 phates are applied have been made in our experiments. There seems, 

 however, to be no doubt of the fact. Hall asserts it in the following 

 words: "Both in the field and in pot experiments the phosphoric acid 

 has a great effect in promoting the formation of adventitious buds, so 

 leading to the tillering of the plant." ^ The beneficial effects of phos- 

 phates in top-dressing for hay are very likely associated in part with 

 a similar effect, which should mean a closer turf and a thicker and heavier 

 yield. The millets and Hungarian grass should, it would seem, show a 

 similar influence. 



3. Earlier and More Perfect Ripening. — The facts that in our experi- 

 ments the more soluble phosphates have produced a larger proportion of 

 sound and perfectly ripened corn and a larger proportion of well-ripened 

 onions than the natural rock phosphates have been pointed out.'^ The 

 more soluble phosphates in these experiments have also produced much 

 the larger proportion of hard (mature) heads of cabbage. The fact that 

 soluble phosphates in al^undance favor perfect and relatively early ma- 

 turity has been too often observed and is too well known to need demon- 

 stration. 



With any crop, therefore, subject to possible frost injury in autumn, 

 a free use of the more soluble and available phosphates should be the 

 rule. In the case of garden crops, also, for which the price is usually 

 much higher for the earhest product, the rule should be the same. A 

 single day with such products as peas, sweet corn, tomatoes and many 

 others which might be mentioned often means the difference between a 

 large profit and a price which perhaps barely covers cost. The gardener, 

 other things being equal, who uses soluble phosphates witliin reasonable 

 limits most freely will be first in market with Ms product. No amount of 

 previous use of natural rock phosphate can produce the same effect, for 

 the phosphoric acid of these is not sufficiently soluble to exercise the 

 required stimulation. 



The superior color of fruits — especially of the apple — produced by 

 trees in soils to which available phosphates have been freely apphed is 



1 "Manures and Fertilizers," p. 139. ^ ggg pp. 154-155. 



