IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME XII 

 No. 133 



Editor-J. W. Besant 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



MARCH 

 1917 





Manure for Allotments* 



1 ROM different sources we hear tliat 

 the provisif'U of manure is proving 

 one cf the chief obstacles in the 

 cultivation of allotments. Farm- 

 yard manure, which is by far the 

 most important, is 



barely available in sufficient 



quantity for the larger agricul- 

 tural operations, so that the 



position of the average plot- 



holder, whether near a town or 



in the country, is a serious cne. 



It would be easy to publish 



tables showing the value of 



farmyard manure compared 



with artificials, and also the 



results obtained from a com- 

 bination of both in various 



quantities. Experiments are 



useful and interesting to far- 

 mers and gardeners, though not 



always convincing, but what 



the inexperienced man wants is 



not a series of tables, but jilain 



facts to be going on with. 



Farmyard manure is, generalty, 



what is known as a complete 



manure, supplying in a greater 



or less degree, according to its 



composition, all the essential 



elements of plant food. It also 



has what might be called a 



mechanical action on the soil, 



rendering a light, dry soil more 



retentive of moisture and a 



heavy soil more Gj)en and friable, and conse- 

 quently more congenial to x)lant growth. 



Where a number of plot-holders are situated 



close together, as is generally the case, it may be 



possible to combine and obtain sufficient farm- 



Phuto by] 



Vekatkum 



requiring the manure for tillage or from some 

 of the numerous contractors in towns ; in the 

 latter case the manurial value is not always of the 

 highest, the bedding too often consisting of peat 

 moss litter. The best manure is that obtamed 

 from the stable, the byre and 

 the pig stye, where the animals 

 have been bedded with straw. 

 A great deal of the land re- 

 cently acquired for allotments 

 has been grass land for many 

 years, and this fact, though 

 presenting initial difficulties in 

 cultivation, will ultimately 

 prove of the greatest value. 

 The sod as it decays will jDro- 

 vide a manure of the highest 

 value, and with the addition of 

 a suitable dressing of artificials 

 will produce good crops. 



There are other factors, how- 

 ever, which have an enormous 

 effect on production — namely, 

 sunlight, air, and what is fami- 

 liarly called "elbow grease." 

 Wliile by no means scorning the 

 value of manures, we think that 

 far too much overcrowding is 

 practised in cropping, particu- 

 larly with potatoes. We are 

 quite alive to the im^Jortance 

 of intensive cultivation, inter- 

 cropping and so on designed 

 to obtain the maximum amount 

 of i^roduce from the soil, but 

 these practices are only apj)hcable to croj^s 

 requiring a comparatively short season of 

 growth, or where a rapid growing crop 

 can be inter-planted with a slow growing 

 one, the former to be removed before the 



[R.M. Pollock. 

 WiLSONI 



yard manure either from a dairyman not latter has reached maturity. 



