MANURING. 121 



of its manurial resources, it has all the necessary manures for successful 

 farming or fruit growing. But under this head it may be well to mention 

 the following fertilizers, which are cheap and most of them products 

 of our manufacturing interests. They can sometimes be used to supple- 

 ment home made manures. 



Tankage. This is the name given to a product of rendering establish- 

 ments; it consists of meat, bones, hair, gristle, blood, etc., from which 

 the fat has been taken, brought to dryness and ground. It is very rich 

 in nitrogen and phosphoric acid, and is a most admirable manure for gar- 

 den and fruit crops. I have found it to give good results wherever tried 

 in the garden, but it is especially valuable on lawns and in the green- 

 house. I am inclined to think tbat for greenhouses and pot plants gen- 

 erally it should be used in connection with a small amount of some potash 

 salt. In the open field I have used it at the rate of 1,000 pounds per acre 

 without any injury, and this is probably as large a quantity as could be 

 applied at one time economically. A much smaller quantity, from 400 to 

 600 pounds, would be enough for an ordinary application to a lawn or field 

 in grass. To the lawn it would be well to apply it several times in the 

 course of the growing season, and if possible just before a rain. Also on 

 garden crops it should be applied several times at intervals of three or 

 four weeks during the growing season. On plants in pots I used it at the 

 rate of one teaspoonful to a five-inch pot, applied to the surface soil. The 

 price at which it is sold at the present time varies from $10 to $15 per ton 

 f. o. b. in South St. Paul. This material is at present our cheapest com- 

 mercial source of phosphoric acid and nitrogen. 



Wheat bran. The use of this as a fertilizer is of some extent, but the 

 same material may be had much more cheaply for a fertilizer by first feed- 

 ing it to animals. It is much cheaper however to use the tankage if the 

 bran is not first to be fed out. 



Wood ashes. The use of wood ashes as a fertilizer should be more gen- 

 erally understood. Hard wood ashes is much richer in potash than soft 

 wood ashes and is relatively more valuable. Leached wood ashes are 

 hardly worth more than the labor of spreading on the land as a rule, but 

 on a light sandy soil they have a tendency to compact, which is an aid to 

 its physical condition, but it does not act as a manure. Unbleached 

 wood ashes is almost a special fertilizer for all fruit crops and only needs 

 the addition of a little nitrogenous manure to make it complete. They 

 should never be mixed with such nitrogenous manures as hen manure and 

 other animal excrements, for they start chemical action and in conse- 

 quence the nitrogen is thrown off in the form of ammonia and is wasted. 

 Unbleached ashes form often a cheap source of potash. Canada soft wood 

 ashes from the mills is sold in the eastern and middle states at twenty- 

 two to twenty-five cents per bushel of forty-five pounds. 



Tobacco stems. At times these are to be had near cigar factories for the 

 asking. They are very rich in potash and nitrogen and almost a special 

 fertilizer for fruit, potatoes and root crops. They rot quickly, and in 

 using them a handful of stems may be thrown on each hill, but a better 

 way is to mix them in the manure pile, where they soon soften down and 

 form with the manure a very rich dressing, for any crop. 



Bones. These may frequently be bought very cheap. They vary much 

 in composition according to whether they are fresh or old. If fresh they 



