250 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 194. 



The figures in Table II will suggest to every thoughtful reader the 

 question as to whether the practice of good growers as exemplified by 

 that of Mr. Wheeler does not furnish a very much greater amount of the 

 different leading plant-food elements than can be necessary, and there- 

 fore whether the net profits of asparagus growing would not probably be 

 increased by some reduction in the amount of fertiHzer applied. In the 

 case of the element nitrogen no large accumulation in the soil as a result 

 of excess appHcation is likely, but if the generally accepted conclusions 

 relative to the relations of phosphoric acid and potash to the soU are 

 correct, the practice under discussion must in a series of years mean a 

 large accumulation of these elements in the soil. 



Plan of the Home Fertilizee Experiment. 

 The fertihzer investigations with asparagus upon the home grounds 

 were laid out in 1903; those in Concord were, with the exception of a few 

 minor details, a duplicate of the home experiment.^ It seems desirable, 

 therefore, to make a clear and full statement of the principal questions 

 upon which it was hoped light would be thrown by these experiments. 

 The preceding paragraphs, taken together with the quotations from the 

 correspondence with the late Frank Wheeler, will, it is thought, sufficiently 

 indicate my reasons for the particular inquiries taken up, namely: — 



1. To test the question as to the amounts of the different elements of 

 plant food, all in the form of chemicals, which can be employed with 

 advantage. 



2. To test the question as to how much, if any, fertilizer can be used 

 with advantage in connection with manure. 



3. To determine what difference, if any, there is in value between the 

 different materials which may be used as a source of potash. 



4. To determine whether nitrate of soda used in connection with manure 

 is beneficial, what quantity, if any, it pays to use, and whether it should 

 be put on in the summer (that is, at the close of the cutting season), in 

 the spring, or equally divided between the two seasons. 



5. To determine the same points with reference to the use of nitrate 

 of soda in connection with chemical fertilizers supplying phosphoric acid 

 and potash. 



The Concord Investigations. 



In 1907, in submitting to Dr. True, then of the Office of Experiment 

 Stations, an outline of the investigations with asparagus in view in Con- 

 cord as an investigation under the Adams act, the following brief state- 

 ment (in substance) was made. Two general objects are in view: — 



1. An effort will be made to breed more rust-resistant types of asparagus. 

 This investigation was undertaken in co-operation with the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry at the head of which at that time was Dr. B. W. Galloway. 



1 The plan of the Concord experiment, and, further, a statement of the fertilizing materials 

 applied to the several plots, is found in Table II under the "Description of the Experiment." 



