1 Aprin, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. — 247 
Agriculture. 
MARKET GARDENING. 
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 
Ganrpen vegetables do not exhaust the soils on which they are grown to any 
extent as compared with the exhaustion produced by many field crops. Peas 
and beans are the most exhausting crops. 
Mr. G. McCarthy, of the N.C. Experiment Station, says that the chief 
ingredient in a good fertiliser for vegetables of which the leaves or stems are the’ 
edible portion is nitrogen. Jor root vegetables phosphoric acid and potash are 
about as important as nitrogen. Jor vegetables of which the seed is the edible 
portion, especially such as are planted early, like the garden pea, phosphoric 
acid is the leading element. For vegetabtes like the tomato, egg-plant, celery, 
melon, &c., potash is the most important. The following table shows the 
amount of the different elements of plant food in 1,0001b. of the edible portion 
of the vegetables named :— 
Vegetables. _ Nitrogen. Potash. Phosphoric Acid. 
lb. lb. lb. 
Beans 32°9 15:5 95 
Beets 8°4 4°4 09 
Cabbage 38 4°3 11 
Cucumber ... 16 24 L249 
CEE 35°8 10°1 84 
Rhubarb 13 3°6 0 
Spinaeh 2:9 2° 16 
Squash 11 89 16 
Sweet Corn - 46 2°2 07 
Tomato 16 0°5 we 
Turnips 18 3°9 1:0 
1 
Except only as to peas and beans, it will be seen that vegetables are not 
very exhausting to the soil. Peas and beans are able to take most of their 
nitrogen from the atmosphere. ‘The table shows that potash is the element 
mostly drawn from the soil, next nitrogen, and lastly phosphoric acid. But_ 
nitrogen has a value for early garden vegetables that chemical analysis does 
not show. Nitrogen forces early growth and gives large succulent leaves and 
stems. Potash gives solidity and crispness to stems and leaves and high colour 
to the fruit. Phosphoric acid gives plumpness and increases the sugar and 
starchy parts of seed and forces early maturity. A good general fertiliser for 
all garden vegetables, except beans and peas, would be the following mixture, 
per acre, but intensive market gardeners use two or three times as much :— 
Ib. Ib, 
Sulphate of potash a xD at 4. 150) to) 225 
Superphosphate .., bee ss m4 PE DORLOLS TO 
Nitrate of soda .,. ay i 1 L50%to 225 
The fertiliser should be raked in just before the seed is sown. 
For peas and beans the normal amount of potash and phosphoric acid may 
be doubled and the nitrate of soda reduced to 50 lb. per acre, 
The sulphate is the best available form of potash for garden vegetables, as 
1 contains no chlorides of salt, and does not make the soil cold. Lt also acts 
With especial favourableness on the starchy portion of vegetables. Fresh or 
Water-slaked lime is always beneficial to garden soil. 
