126 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



in most sections as the most profitable. The fact is, there 

 has been agreement among our asparagus men that growers 

 are seklom justified in phmting anything else but Palmetto. 

 I presume that varieties which will be developed at the As- 

 paragus Experiment Station, Concord, Mass., will soon re- 

 place Palmetto and other varieties which have been largely 

 planted for many years. In this connection mention shoidd 

 be made of Reading Giant, Avhich is giving better results in 

 some sections than Palmetto. 



VAiUE OF Yield per Acre. 



1910. 



1911. 



1912. 



Bonvalette Giant, 

 Connover's Colossal, 

 Barr Mammoth, . 

 Columbian Mammoth, 

 Dreer Eclipse, 

 Palmetto, 



$72 84 

 M SO 

 66 24 

 47 52 

 57 12 

 63 36 



$187 68 



175 68 

 170 40 



176 64 

 174 72 

 248 64 



$405 72 

 403 85 

 394 71 

 350 48 

 439 43 

 539 90 



Marked Variations ix Strain's. 

 It is not enough to know that you are planting a variety 

 which is best adapted to your conditions, but you should 

 know you have the best strain of the variety best adapted to 

 your conditions. The question of strains has been given very 

 little attention by our vegetable growers, and most of them 

 do not know the great diiferences that exist between strains 

 of the same variety. Experiments conducted with tomatoes 

 and cabbage at the Pennsylvania State College during the 

 past four years show that marked variations exist and should 

 be taken into account by commercial growers. These results 

 have been published in Bulletin Xo. 119, which will be for- 

 warded upon application by the experiment station, State 

 College, Pa., to gardeners who are interested. In the experi- 

 ments with Jersey Wakefield (Eigs. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) the 

 first cutting for 31 strains varied from .22 to 3.8-4 tons, 

 making a difference of over 3 tons in favor of the best 

 strain. One of the accompanying illustrations (Fig. 3) 



