1452 The Vegetable Industry in New Yohk State 



first named distance 5,808 plants are required for an acre. The 

 holes are made with a hoe and soaked with water, and the mud 

 is plastered over the roots in the same way as already described 

 for cauliflowers. Twenty barrels of water an acre are required 

 for setting in a dry time. 



FERTILIZATION AXD CULTIVATION 



A commercial fertilizer is always used on sprouts, though when 

 the latter succeed potatoes the same year the fertilizer is applied 

 to the potatoes. If the land has been spread with bunkers the 

 preceding fall, one-half ton of 4-8-7 fertilizer is sufficient on the 

 potatoes; otherwise 1,500 to 2,000 poimds should be used. I 

 the. land is saved for sprouts, the same amounts of the 4-8-7 

 or of the 6—8—5 are used just before setting. One grower obtained 

 one of his best crops when he used three-fifths of a ton of Lister's 

 potato fertilizer and one-half ton of fish scrap, on land saved 

 for the crop. The land was in sod the preceding year. The I. P. 

 Thomas potato fertilizer, at one to one and one-fourth tons per 

 acre, is also liked for sprouts. Every other year the land should 

 have a spreading of stable manure at the rate of 100 to 150 dump- 

 loads (16 to 24 tons) per acre. 



Bunkers when obtainable cost $1.50 a thousand. They do not 

 become so quickly available as^ fish scrap, but the blood and juices 

 go into the soil, and the fertilizing materials come considerably 

 cheaper in this form. It takes about 14,000 bunkers to make a 

 ton of fish scrap analyzing 10 per cent, ammonia and 6 per cent, 

 phosphoric acid, yet the scrap sells for $35 a ton, 



Swamp muck from the salt marshes is being used on sprout 

 ground by one grower at the rate of ten spreader-loads per acre. 

 It is dug with a steam shovel, sprinkled with ground phosphate 

 rock, and shredded by running through a rotary ice chopper. The 

 material, which is black as coal, consists of a mass of fine roots and 

 ought greatly to increase the retentiveness of the soil ; but it has 

 not been in use long enough to demonstrate its value. A sample 

 shows the following analysis: 



Per cent. 



Water 6.9 



Organic matter 45 . 49 



Nitrogen 1.27 



