214 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



been growing asparagus for years in one place you should 

 apply magnesia. 



Mr. Slade. You know a bed lasts a lifetime. 



Mr. BowKER. Yes, sir ; but still that does not necessa- 

 rily disprove the point which I tried to establish in my paper, 

 that certain things were almost specific for certain crops. 

 Magnesia may be essential for asparagus, but I think we should 

 soon learn that certain things have special effects on certain 

 crops ; or rather, to put it in another way, that certain crops 

 have a decided taste for certain kinds of plant food. Nitrate 

 of soda, for instance, seems to give a great growth to aspar- 

 agus, and it seems to be just the thing to apply in the spring. 

 On the other hand, spinach wants sulphate of ammonia. Of 

 course that is not all that is wanted, — you want potash, phos- 

 phoric acid and other ingredients present in the soil for that 

 crop ; but sulphate of ammonia seems to be just what it 

 wants, — it carries the crop to successful maturity, and that is 

 what we are after in practical agriculture. 



Mr. Hersey of Hiugham. I have listened with a great 

 deal of pleasure, and I think with considerable profit, to the 

 paper which has just been read. I believe that the time is 

 coming when we shall fertilize our crops with that fertilizer 

 which is best adapted to them, but I can hardly say that 

 we have got to that period yet. At the present time we 

 are only, as has been said, on the edge of this knowledge, 

 and it is knowledge of the highest importance to all of us 

 who are using commercial fertilizers. I think, however, that 

 our land has much to do with it, after all ; that we may go to 

 experts for information and they may give us information in 

 regard to what is best for certain crops, and yet if we should 

 undertake to use the fertilizers they recommend on our land, 

 the condition of our land might be such that they would not 

 prove beneficial at all. I have had some experience in this 

 concentrated fertilizer business, and sometimes have been led 

 astray even by experts, — even by our friend who has given 

 us this very valuable paper. No longer ago than last spring 

 I was in his oflice, and he recommended, what he recommends 

 here to-day, nitrate of soda for asparagus, and having full 

 faith in his knowledge of the matter, I purchased some nitrate 

 of soda of him ; I carried it home and put it on every fourth 



