THE MANURING OF MARKET-GARDEN CROPS. 



1033 



other cases such has not been the case. Our experience, however, with 

 the heavier crops of 1899, 1900, and 1901, leads us to the conclusion that, 

 even when a moderate quantity of dung is used, it is wise, on soils that 

 are naturally poor in potash, to apply an occasional dressing of potash 

 salts to land on which Spinach is grown. 



Our two crops of Winter Spinach in 1898 and 1901 were taken after 

 the crop of Summer Spinach, but the manures were applied only once 

 each year. It will be seen that the effect of the liberal use of chemical 

 fertilisers as an addition to dung is well brought out, and that the heaviest 

 increase has been obtained with dung and chemical fertilisers including 

 the heavy dressing of 6 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre. 



It ought to be mentioned that in order to obtain our records for 

 Spinach we have not gathered the crops leaf by leaf, as they would be 

 gathered in ordinary market gardening, but have allowed the crop to 

 stand undisturbed until it reached the flowering stage, when we cut and 

 weighed the entire crop of green stuff. We consider that this gives, for 

 this crop, equally good comparative results, although the actual weights 

 per acre are probably not the same as those that would be obtained by 

 plucking the leaves singly during the life of the plant. 



Beetroots. 



Our culture of Beetroots has not been uniformly satisfactory, owing to 

 the difficulties which we have sometimes had to encounter by reason of 

 drought during the spring, and also through wireworm. Sometimes the 

 plant has failed us, or the seed has come up so irregularly as to neces- 

 sitate a second or third sowing. In 1894, for instance, the plant wholly 

 failed ; and in 1895, although we obtained, in one sense, an excellent crop, 

 the roots, owing to the necessity of re-sowing, were of different ages, 

 destroying the comparative value of the different plots for experimental 

 purposes. 



Up to 1898 we grew the crop on the original system of manuring, 

 with dressings of nitrate of soda running up to 4 cwt. per acre. In 1899, 

 1900, and 1901, we increased the dressings of nitrate according to our 

 later scheme. In the two former years no material increase was obtained 

 from the larger dressings of nitrate when dung was used ; but in 1901, 

 when the crop was heavier than usual, there was a substantial advantage 

 from the larger dressings. 



The following table gives average results for six years : — 



BEETROOTS— Six Yeaks' Average. 



Annual cost of Average of six 

 Annual manuring per acre manure per j crops of Beet- 



acre roots per acre 



£ >, (/. tons cwt. 



50 loads (25 tons) London Dung 10 0 0 13 11 



25 loads (12£ tons) London Dung 5 0 0 11 13 



25 loads Dung, Phosphates, and 2 cwt. Nitrate of Soda 



(without Potash) 6 15 0 12 10 



Ditto, ditto, ditto (with Potash) 7 5 0 12 13 



25 loads Dung, Phosphates, and 4 cwt. Nitrate of Soda 



(without Potash) 7 15 0 13 15 



Ditto, ditto, ditto (with Potash) 8 5 0 13 10 



