No. 4.] MARKET GARDENING. 131 



soil nitrogen, so that it is unnecessary to use as much nitro- 

 gen in the fertilizer. On the other hand, you do not increase 

 the total amount of mineral element. The cover crop does 

 increase the availability of the mineral supply in the soil, 

 but not to a sufficient extent to make the use of a mineral 

 element in fertilizer unprofitable, so that the universal prac- 

 tice in those communities is to use fertilizer rather freely. 



Mr. WiLFKiD WiiEELEK. I would like to ask about the 

 use of sulfur as a fertilizer. 



Professor Watts. I am very glad we have with us here 

 to-day one who can answer that question better than I. I 

 will ask Dr. Wheeler to answer it. 



Dr. n. J. Wheelek. The Wisconsin State University 

 has recently published a bulletin, by Professor Hart, in 

 which attention is called to the occasional rapid depletion of 

 sulfur in the soil. The fact is brought out that where stable 

 manure is used there will be sulfur enough maintained for 

 all purposes. It has yet to be proved in an experimental way 

 that the addition of sulfur or sulfur compounds will be of 

 any particular importance generally in connection with the 

 growth of plants. It is one of those points that is interest- 

 ing, and it is well to give it careful consideration. The pos- 

 sible usefulness of sulfur may further explain the remarkable 

 beneficial action of acid phosphate in some instances. 



Mr. C. W. Pkescott. In the experiment station at Con- 

 cord we conducted a small experiment with two strains of 

 asparagus. We had two strains which had been considered 

 quite rust-resisting. Five rows of each kind were planted 

 side by side under exactly similar conditions, so far as fer- 

 tilizer was concerned. That experiment has been carried on 

 for three years now, and every stalk in the rows has been 

 weighed and counted. They have been sorted so that the 

 large stalks, anything that ran 16 inches, were considered 

 giant. Those were cut separately and counted and weighed : 

 and to show you the importance of selecting the strain, even 

 of perhaps the same kind of asparagus, same variety, one 

 strain gave something like eight to 10 times as much giant 

 asparagus as the other. That meant a very large diiference 

 in quantity of crops and also in monev value. Out of 76 dif- 



