THE MANURING OF MARKET-GARDEN CROPS. 



1055 



It would appear from this set of experiments as though Strawberries 

 did not require very heavy manuring. The lighter dressing of dung 

 has given a persistently better yield than the heavy dressing ; and the 

 quantity of fruit yielded by a light dressing of dung has, on the average, 

 not been increased to any considerable extent by the addition of chemical 

 fertilisers. Where the chemical manuring has been unduly heavy, 

 indeed, the crop has diminished. Altogether the best results were given 

 by a light dressing of dung supplemented by phosphates and 2 cwt. of 

 nitrate of soda per acre. 



The use of chemical fertilisers, however, appears to have the great 

 advantage of producing earlier maturity, a point to which we shall return 

 again presently. 



In 1897 we made another plantation, this time of ' Paxton ' Straw- 

 berries, and these we cropped for five years. The plants were practically 

 worn out, however, in the fifth year — 1902 ; and, moreover, their fruiting 

 was very much interfered with by frost. We therefore eliminate this 

 year's crop from our record of the results obtained from this plantation, 

 and in the following table give the average of the four full crops grown 

 from 1898 to 1901. 



STRAWBERRIES (' Paxton 



Annual manuring per acre 



Annual cost of 

 manure per acre 



Average annual yield 

 of Strawberries per 

 acre over four years 

 (1898 to 1901 inclusive) 







£ s. 



d. 



lbs. 



50 loads (25 tons) London Dung 

 25 loads (12^ tons) London Dung 



10 0 



0 



3,248 



5 0 



0 



2,940 



25 loads Dung, Phosphates, and 1 cwt. Nitrate 











6 5 



0 



3,024 



25 loads Dung, Phosphates, and 2 cwt. Nitrate 







of Soda 



6 15 



0 



2,210 



25 loads Dung, Phosphates, and 4 cwt. Nitrate 







of Soda 



7 15 



0 



2,492 



No Dung ; Phosphates and 4 cwt. Nitrate of 









2 15 



0 



2,324 



Although this variety (' Paxton ') is a very favourite one, it has not 

 done by any means so well in our stiff soil as the ' President ' variety. 



On this plantation the heavier manuring with dung gave rather 

 better results than the lighter dressing, but no material addition to the 

 total weight of the crop has accrued from the use of chemical fertilisers. 

 But, as in the case of the ' President ' plantation, we have found that 

 the use of chemical fertilisers conduces to earliness. 



It will have been noticed that, in giving the results of both sets of 

 experiments, the potash plots have been omitted. The ' President ' 

 Strawberries during the first two years were manured with potash salts 

 in the same way as most of our other crops ; but in every case the potash 

 plots were so markedly inferior in yield, and the development of the 

 plants appeared to be so unsatisfactory as compared with that of the 

 plants on the non-potash plots, that we resolved to withhold potash salts 

 in future. 



Although we thus discontinued the use of potash, the plants on the 



