SOILS AND FERTILIZERS FOR VEGETABLES 



J. F. Barker 

 Agronomist, New York Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y. 



Soils to be well suited to the growing of 

 vegetables should be light in texture, 

 thoroughly underdrained, but well sup- 

 plied with moisture. This usually means 

 deep sandy loams, loams and muck soils. 

 The physical properties of the soil and 

 nearness to market are more important 

 factors to be considered than natural fer- 

 tility, for the latter can be supplied more 

 easily than the first can be modified. The 

 necessity for frequent stirring, ridging and 

 even handling of the soil in vegetable growing constitutes in itself 

 sufficient reason why soils of light texture should be selected. But 

 where early and rapid growth and quick maturity are important 

 considerations, it is only the light, sandy or muck soils that can be 

 used. Such soils warm up much earlier in the spring, admit of 

 more rapid decomposition of organic matter and formation of 

 nitrates and more rapid movement of plant-food solutions in the 

 soil. These crops, on such soils, can be planted earlier in the 

 spring and brought to maturity in a shorter time than on heavier 

 types of soil. However, almost any soil can be made to grow a 

 good crop of vegetables, and for home use any type of soil available 

 may be so employed. The sandy soils will not produce so large a 

 crop as somewhat heavier soils under the same conditions, and so 

 for late vegetables the loams or even silt loams are to be preferred. 



FERTILIZERS AND MANURES 



The liberal use of fertilizers nearly always plays an important 

 part in vegetable growing. There is almost no soil naturally so 

 well stocked with fertility that it can be very long cropped in- 

 tensively, and with greatest profit, without the use of fertilizers. 



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