20 GARDENING INDOORS AND UNDER GLASS 
soil. It may also be frequently used to advantage 
as a top dressing on plants that have exhausted the 
food in their pots, or while developing buds or 
blooming. Work two or three spoonfuls into the 
top of the soil. 
Nitrate of soda is the next in importance. It is 
very strong and must be carefully used, the safest 
way being to use it as a liquid manure, one or two 
teaspoonsful dissolved in three gallons of water. 
If first dissolved in a pint of hot water, and then 
added to the other, it will be more quickly done. 
Use a pint or so of this solution in watering. The 
results will often be wonderful. 
Cottonseed meal may be safely mixed with the 
soil, like ground bone, but requires some time in 
which to rot, before the plant can make use of it. 
Wood ashes are also safe, and good to add to the 
potting soil. They help to make a firm, hard 
growth, as a result of the potash they furnish. 
Where plants seem to be making a too rapid, 
watery growth, wood ashes may be applied to the 
surface and worked in. 
With a soil prepared as directed in the first part 
of this chapter, there will be very little need for 
using any other of the fertilizers, until plants have 
been shifted into their last pots and have filled 
them with roots. When this stage is reached the 
use of liquid manures as described later will fre- 
quently be beneficial. If, however, a plant for any 
