356 The Profitable Culture of Vegetables. 



thoroughly decayed condition never fresh and rank ; (6) when 

 the plants are swelling the second truss of fruit they are 

 greatly benefitted, and enabled to bear a heavier crop, by one 

 or two light dressings of nitrate of soda or other quick-acting 

 nitrogenous manure; (7) available phosphates are .necessary to 

 early ripening. It will be seen from the foregoing, that a 

 moderate dressing of farmyard manure in a thoroughly decayed 

 condition is considered necessary to a first-class crop ; in this 

 connection it will be useful to glance again at the illustration 

 on page 354. In this case a number of plants of Sunrise which 

 is an ideal variety in every way except that the fruit runs rather 

 small were set out at the foot of a fence facing east, and in a 

 shallow trench below the plants old hot-bed manure was put, 

 3m. thick and Gin. broad, with Gin. soil on top ; after planting, 

 a little sulphate of potash was sprinkled along the row and 

 hoed in, then the soil was made very firm ; about the beginning 

 of July, after a good soaking with water, a mulch of short 

 manure, 3in. thick, was spread over the surface, water being 

 ^iven several times afterwards. The object of the experiment 

 was to test the effect on the size and quality of the fruit of a 

 liberal quantity of well decayed manure within reach of the 

 roots, in such a position that it would also act as a reservoir 

 of moisture. The crop was superb both in weight and quality, 

 whilst the size of the individual fruits was increased over the 

 average by at least one-third ; when the photograph was taken 

 most of the fruit had been gathered from the bottom bunches. 

 The plants were sprayed three times with 'Bordeaux mixture. 

 Although the summer (19 10) was cold and wet there was no trace 

 of disease. The result of using manure was very favourable. 



In a general way a suitable manuring would be the following : 

 Well-decayed manure, at the rate of 12 to 20 tons per acre 

 according to fertility, dug or ploughed in during winter or 

 early in spring. In addition to the manure, on heavy soil give 

 6 cwt. basic slag in winter and li cwt. sulphate of potash before 

 planting ; on light soil give 4 cwt. kainit as early as possible 

 and 3 cwt. superphosphates before planting. In either case 

 a sprinkling of nitrate of soda along the rows early in July, say 

 1| cwt. per acre in two applications with a fortnight interval, 

 will increase the crop, but this dressing is not essential. 



