FURTHER TRIALS OF F' 



.XPk'OSIVES IN THE GARDEN. 125 



7 feet, whilst on the 



to 6 feet \ few -i£*Tp>/oded part of the same bed no piece reached 

 hei ht buttb r a^gglers on the two-ovince patch reached the latter 

 show the " -- ^f^^h was irregular. The two photographs (figs. 49, 50) 

 „ deference in growth on the bed which was treated with one- 



oun r 



r dharges ; the black line on the height gauge is at 6 feet from 

 iM?. ground. The increase of growth is in agreement with the effect. 

 3 have already recorded (loc. ext. p. 16) in regard to seedling asparagus. 

 ik further fact also brings one certainly to the conclusion that the 

 ' exploding was the cause of the increased growth. As the summer 

 waned the shoots on the unexploded areas became sere and yellow, 

 • and a ifihe arrived when all the plants on unexploded ground were 

 yellbw 1 except one only, an outlier. On the two-ounce patch four or five 

 of clfe plants were still green, whilst on the one-ounce part not a single 

 ip&nt showed any yellowness ; later the last trace of green was to be 

 seen on this part. 



The seedlings which were referred to in my previous paper naturally 

 were much more luxuriant last summer where the soil had been exploded 

 than those which were planted on unexploded soil, as they had such 

 a good start in life. One can but conclude that, in this soil, explosives 

 materially assist the growth of asparagus. 



Potalos. — My potatos last year were the subject of rather complex 

 'conditions, and those under experiment were all of one variety, viz 

 ' Dobbie's Provost.' Unfortunately it did not prove very disease 

 -resistant, and the Phytophthora seemed to be making so much headway 

 that in August (10-15) the haulm was cat back to save the crop ; hence 

 the weights are much smaller than they would have been otherwise ; 

 happily the store (February) seems nearly free from diseased tubers. 

 The seed tubers were graded into three sizes, " large," " medium," and 

 ' .small." Half of each row was on ground that had been dressed 

 with fine-broken wood charcoal, the object in view being to see whether 

 this material, with its considerable power of absorbing oxygen, would 

 have a favourable effect on our clayey soil. In order to minimize 

 the effect of potash in the charcoal, two top-dressings of sulphate of 

 potash and of ammonia were given at planting and on appearance. 

 It may be noted also that the charcoal had a distinct odour of creosote. 

 The accompanying tabulat ed statement gives the details of the different 

 groups, the figures being the average weight of crop per plant in pounds 

 and decimals. The exploded part was treated with two-ounce charges 

 6 feet apart, in quincunx, at a depth of fully 3 J feet. It will be noted 

 that the figures for the small and medium-sized seed on the un- 

 exploded ground are somewhat discrepant ; this may be due to the 

 site of the previous season's celery trench, which was wide enough 

 for three rows of plants. Further, the non-charcoaled portion of the 

 exploded site is somewhat shaded by a hornbeam hedge on its south, 

 and here the greater number of diseased tubers were found. The whole 

 area gave identical average weights for the plants (2*i61b.), whether 

 on exploded or non-exploded ground. Taking the crop from large seed, 

 the preponderance is 46 per cent, in favour of exploding; that from 



