478 Fertilisers for Market Garden Crops. 



be not less than 2 cwt. per acre. Whether an additional 2 cwt. 

 would produce benefit or not is probably a matter of season. 



Asparagus. 



We made a plantation of asparagus in a very unpromising 

 clay field. The land was first thoroughly well trenched, and a 

 good deal of dung was uniformly distributed in the subsoil before 

 the replacement of the surface soil. The plots were manured 

 according to the general plan adopted with our other vegetables. 



There has never been any substantial advantage shown by the 

 heavily dunged plot over the lightly dunged plot. During the 

 first three seasons the size and weight of the asparagus grown 

 was about the same on both the dunged plots. The shoots were, 

 however, much finer and heavier on the plots on which the 

 dung was supplemented by phosphates, potash salts, and nitrate 

 of soda, especially on the plots where the quantity of nitrate 

 used was from 2 to 4 cwt. per acre. Even the plot without dung, 

 but manured liberally with chemical fertilisers, gave much finer 

 asparagus than the heavily dunged plot, though the actual yield 

 was less. 



During the succeeding three years the difference between the 

 various plots has disappeared, as far as size and yield are con- 

 cerned, and we are growing asparagus all round at the rate of 

 nearly 3,000 bundles per acre (a " bundle " being 50 shoots). 

 Possibly the indifference to surface manuring is because our 

 plants are now feeding in the residue of the dung buried in the 

 retentive subsoil. The crop, however, is earlier on the chemi- 

 cally fertilised plots than on the " dung-only " plots, and the 

 asparagus is more tender and succulent and of better flavour 

 than where dung only is used. 



Beans and Peas. 



Leguminous crops are now frequently supposed to be non- 

 responsive to nitrogenous manure, because, under certain 

 circumstances, they are able to flourish independently of it. The 

 remarkable results produced by nitrate of soda and sulphate of 

 ammonia on lucerne at Woburn, and the no less striking results 

 obtained in our own experiments on lucerne — which have been 

 fully published and discussed elsewhere — have led Mr. Shrivell 



