206 BOARD OF AGElCULTURE. 



" It is as an application to the turnip that phosphoric acid 

 is so marked in its effects, even when the soil already con- 

 tains it in considerable quantity. The reason of this it is 

 not difficult to trace. The seed of the turnip is small, and 

 it is sown in the warm season, when the growth is rapid. 

 The seeds themselves have only a limited quantity of phos- 

 phates stored up for the benefit of the roots and leaves of 

 the young plants. Unless the roots, therefore, while yet 

 short, meet with a concentrated supply, the other elements of 

 the food of the plant, — carbonic acid, water and ammonia, — 

 however abundantly they may be present, cannot be assimi- 

 lated, and the growth is arrested. Besides, a liberal supply 

 of phosphates has the effect of pushing on the turnip through 

 its early stages, when it is so liable to injury from various 

 insects." 



In this connection I wish to give an experiment with stock 

 beets raised entirely on plain superphosphate. The variety 

 is what is known as Joseph Harris' Improved Stock Beet, a 

 sample of which I have here upon the table, and which, as 

 you will see, looks very much like the rutabaga turnip. Mr. 

 W. W. Phipps of Albion, N. Y., raised this year 1,2G6 

 bushels of these beets on one acre, applying no stable manure, 

 but, instead, 2,000 pounds of plain superphosphate, con- 

 taining about fourteen per cent, available phosphoric acid, 

 but no potash or ammonia. The field in which these beets 

 were raised is a dark loam, about eight inches deep, with a 

 clay subsoil well underdrained. The seed was sown May 20, 

 with an ordinary grain drill, twelve pounds to the acre, in 

 drills twenty-eight inches apart. The plants were thinned 

 out from eight to twelve inches. Level culture throughout 

 the season. The crops that had been raised on the piece in 

 previous years were wheat in 1881, with twenty loads of 

 coarse barnyard manure, and one hundred and fifty pounds 

 of fertilizer to the acre. It was seeded to grass in 1882 and 

 mowed the two following years. In 1885 it was planted to 

 beans with one hundred and fifty pounds of fertilizer, — no 

 other manure ; and in 188G it was planted to beets, as above 

 stated. The crops of wheat, hay and beans were all large 

 ones, so it must be concluded that there was but little, if any, 

 of the value of the previous manuring left in the soil, and that 



