FERTILIZERS FOR VEGETABLES 



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pounds, or fifteen hundred, or two thousand pounds. We 

 have found that where farmers use the same method of ap- 

 plication with two thousand pounds as with five hundred, 

 they get more injury. Up above a thousand pounds I think 

 the difficulty can be overcome largely where you want to 

 put on large applications of fertilizer by not putting on more 

 than six hundred pounds in the row at the time of planting 

 or previous, and then when the potatoes are up, say two or 

 four inches, make an application alongside the row of the 

 balance of the fertilizer that yoa want to put on, drilling it in 

 slightly. Under those conditions you not only avoid the in- 

 jury to the seed, but where you have considerable amounts 

 of nitrate and particularly on light soils, you get the full ef- 

 fect of your fertilizer better than if you put the whole amount 

 in at the time of planting. 



Question : Do you think you get the value of the fertili- 

 zer in the crop of potatoes when, after using five or six hun- 

 dred pounds right in the row, you can see a line ox white all 

 the way up the field at digging time? 



Professor Van Slyke: The probability is that such an 

 appearance comes from the land plaster which is in the acid 

 phosphate in the fertilizer. 



Question : Would that not indicate that a good deal of the 

 fertilizer was left there? 



Professor Van Slyke: That depends a good deal upon 

 the form you put on. Rock phosphate usually gives good re- 

 sults the second year, but with acid phosphate, unless you 

 put on very large amounts, the probability is that not enough 

 would be left to affect the next crop noticeably. 



For Celery. 



Question : Would you use the same formula for celery on 

 muck land? 



Professor Van Slyke: I would, in putting in the crop, 

 but I would make applications of nitrate of soda as a top 

 dressing. 



Question: What quantity would you use in putting in 

 the crop? 



