Jan. 1923] annual report 21 



portion may be much the greater. This is due to the higher prices which 

 prevail early in the season when the supply is limited. Under conditions 

 such as prevail in New Hampshire, frequently the latter part of the tomato 

 crop is lost by frost injury because of the relatively short growing season. 

 This project was continued by J. R. Hepler (Horticulture) and H. R. 

 Kraybill (Agricultural Chemistry) in 1921 to determine whether the ap- 

 plication of phosphorus fertilizers would hasten the maturity of the tomato. 

 The fertilizer treatments of the plots were as follows : 



Plot 1 — 40 tons of manure per acre. 

 Plot 2 — 20 tons of manure per acre. 

 Plot 3 — 20 tons manure per acre. 



1000 pounds acid phosphate per acre. 

 Plot 4 — 20 tons manure per acre. 



1000 pounds gypsum per acre. 

 Plot 5 — 20 tons manure per acre. 



500 pounds acid phosphate per acre. 

 Plot 6 — 20 tons manure per acre. 



1000 pounds acid phosphate per acre. 



1000 pounds muriate of potash per acre. 

 Plot 7 — 20 tons manure per acre. 



1000 pounds muriate of potash per acre. 

 Plot 8 — 20 tons manure per acre. 



1500 pounds acid phosphate per acre. 



There were four duplicate plots of each treatment. Records of the num- 

 ber of fruit and weight at each picking time were kept for each plot. The 

 number of blo.ssom clusters, the number of blossoms per cluster, the num- 

 ber of fruit set and the number of fruit ripened were recorded for 12 plants 

 of each plot. 



The following table shows the average yield of the four plots of each treat- 

 ment and the probable error, and a comparison of the yields of the different 

 treatments with the yield of the plots treated with 20 tons of manure per 

 acre and the probable errors. Up to September 13th the yield of all the 

 plots receiving acid phosphate and the plots receiving extra manure were 

 decidedly larger than the yields of the plots treated with manure alone. 

 The yield of the gypsum plots was slightly more and of the muriate of pot- 

 ash was slightly less than of the manure-alone plots. The data show that 

 the application of acid phosphate in addition to the manure hastens ma- 

 turity and also increases the total yield per acre. The extra manure plots 

 gave the highest total yields for the season but the yields early in the season 

 were not so high as those of the acid phosphate treatments. The applica- 

 tion of muriate of potash showed no appreciable increase in yield. 



