1910. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
446 
GROWING A BIG SQUASH. 
J. S., Hicksville, N. Y .—Can you tell me 
how to grow prize squash which will make 
a good show in a fair? 
Ans. —First get a variety or strain 
of squash which you know grows to 
large size. Plant in a large hill using 
plenty of well-rotted stable manure. 
Pour water over this manure and then 
stamp it down hard. Put about an inch 
of rich soil over the manure and plant 
the seeds on this, covering them in the 
usual manner. When the vines are of 
good size take out all but two and train 
them in opposite directions. Leave one 
forming fruit on each side and nip off 
other flowers and fruit. Throw the full 
■strength of each vine into one squash. 
With a hoe cover the vine joints so they 
will take root and water the hill from 
time to time with manure water or 
nitrate of soda dissolved in water. Do 
not put this directly on the hill, but six 
inches to a foot away, and well worked 
into the soil. The object is to stimulate 
a heavy vine growth, then throw the 
full strength into one or two fruits. 
HOW TO MANURE ASPARAGUS. 
From one or more of the articles that 
have appeared in Tiie R. N.-Y. on the 
production of asparagus, there seems yet 
room for something to be said on the 
manuring of this crop. Our method, in 
this asparagus section of New Jersey, is 
to select a piece of ground suitable for 
the crop, one or two years in advance of 
the setting of the crowns; manure this 
liberally, and plant truck crops that re¬ 
quire clean cultivation. When ready to 
plant in asparagus, manure again before 
plowing; plow under at least seven 
inches deep, set plants without any fur¬ 
ther manuring. After the plants begin to 
grow, fertilize the row with a good com¬ 
mercial fertilizer. During July it is well 
to side-dress the young plants with from 
200 to 250 pounds of nitrate of soda. 
That is all the manuring and fertilizer 
that will be needed until the Fall of the 
first year. During late Fall (usually in 
this locality in November), plow a fur¬ 
row on each side of the asparagus row, 
from the plants, turn it out as clean 
and deep as possible. In these furrows 
spread composted manure. Let it be well 
rotted, and use a ton to every 200 yards 
of row. When completed, turn a furrow 
back, covering the manure. Following 
rains will leach out some of the sub¬ 
stance, carrying it still lower; young 
rootlets will form in and under this 
manure, keeping the whole root system 
well down in the soil, .where it properly 
belongs. 
At the first cultivation the following 
Spring, apply a dressing, comparatively 
low in nitrogen, but rich in phosphoric 
acid and potash. Use S00 or 1,000 pounds 
per acre, and work it well down into the 
soil. This should be done every Spring, 
slightly increasing the quantity, year by 
year, until 1,400 pounds is reached. Ap¬ 
plications of animal manures, after an 
asparagus bed is one year set, I prefer to 
have in a broad, open plow furrow, mid¬ 
way between each row. This has a 
further tendency to keep the roots below 
the reach of plow and cultivator, and 
into moist soil. In opening furrows for- 
this purpose, if an occasional root |,s 
torn out or cut off, the grower uliHi 
have no fear that this slight mutilation 
of roots will do any harm. A few years 
ago I knew an asparagus grower who 
dug a tile drain between two asparagus 
rows, cutting off all roots for a depth 
of 2 y 2 to three feet. This grower tells 
me that the two rows, one on each side 
of the ditch, cut more and better ‘‘grass” 
for three years after than any other two 
rows in the field, showing, I think, that 
a slight mutilation of roots midway be¬ 
tween two asparagus rows, in order to 
get manure well down in the soil, need 
not be feared by anyone. 
On a cutting bed of asparagus, there 
should be some available nitrogen used 
after young growth begins, when the 
cutting season is over, and I know of 
nothing better than 200 pounds of nitrate 
of soda per acre. This, I believe to have 
a tendency to retard attacks of the rust. 
During the Summer of 1908 when the 
weather was very dry and hot, and the 
rust so prevalent, I had occasion to 
watch and study a number of asparagus 
fields, and in practically every case where 
nitrate of soda was used, after the close 
of the cutting season, attacks of the rust 
were from two to four weeks later in 
appearing than where no soda was used 
at all. My belief is that the root sys¬ 
tem of an asparagus plant is not kept 
deep in the soil by setting the young 
crowns 10 or 12 in'ches deep in the outset, 
but set them seven or eight inches deep, 
and put all plant foods as near the same 
"depth as possible, and the grower need 
have no fear of the root system getting 
too near the surface. c. c. hulsart. 
A Slow Express Package. 
I think that I hold the record for a de¬ 
layed shipment on a “rush” order. Ou 
September 19, 1907, I had shipped to me 
from Monroe, Mich., two small castings, 
and 1 received the same pieces in February, 
1909, with 75 cents charges. As the time 
had passed for my needing them, I refused 
to accept them. After some days, the ex¬ 
press agent told me if I would take the 
package he had been authorized to make a 
reduction to GO cents. I suppose that I 
must have been impressed, for I accepted 
the article. On December of last year I 
shipped a box of walnuts to Brooklyn, and, 
while they have not arrived at their desti¬ 
nation yet, at last accounts the express 
company was making a “diligent search,” 
so they said. It takes about three hours 
to go from here to Brooklyn. In case the 
box should be found I have doubts about 
the consignee’s being willing to pay for 
walnuts in the Spring that he had ordered 
for the previous holiday season. c. s. d. 
Pleasant Valley, N. Y. 
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Agricultural College 
Reports on Paints 
ROF. E. F. LADD, of the North 
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Fertilizer attachment that distributes either in hill or drill. n p ■» 
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Forty 
pages in colors ^ ' - ' 
