acre on heavy soils and 8-16-16 on 
sandy soils. After plowing, harrow in 
8-16-16 at the same rate. If mostly 
leafy crops are to be grown on an 
area, 10-10-10 may be a better choice. 
If 816-16 is used, later side-dressings 
of nitrogen materials can be made 
after the last cultivation, if necessary, 
to offset unusual leaching losses of 
nitrogen and to encourage more vig- 
orous leaf growth. 
For tomatoes, keep down the nitro- 
gen early, especially for the Rutgers 
variety, but feed well with side- 
dressings of 8-16-16 after the crop is 
set to prevent demands of maturing 
fruit from robbing the leaves — since 
under such conditions they cannot 
do their work and will therefore 
drop off. 
For the perennial crops of rhubarb 
and asparagus, use 8-16-16 at 600 to 
700 pounds per acre before and after 
the cutting season. 
Build up the humus with sods and 
cover crops. Now is a good time to 
plan on building up the humus sup- 
ply of the farm garden. 
Cover crops of fall-sown grains or 
rye grass, with or without manure, 
will not improve the farm garden 
soil so much as a good sod. Both sods 
and cover crops furnish none too 
much organic material to make more 
humus for the farm garden. Why not 
double the size of the garden site 
and have two halves in a two-year 
rotation with a well-fertilized sod 
always in preparation for the next 
year’s garden? If a shock treatment 
is needed to get the upbuilding 
quickly under way, plant a crop 
of drilled or thickly-planted hybrid 
field corn, with a double dose of ma- 
nure and fertilizer under it and then 
plow it down with extra nitrogen. 
If followed by a sod crop or a full 
year of rye grass, this treatment will 
really produce organic matter as 
proved this year and last at the East- 
ern States Plant Industry Project at 
Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. At 
Westbrook Laboratory farms, too, 
measurements of Illinois 448 hybrid 

