202 Cornell Extension Bulletin io 



All humus-making material produces acidity when rotting in the soil. 

 This can be easily overcome, or neutralized, by the use of lime. B. C. 

 Auten is emphatic in his denunciation of lime. He writes: " Two years' 

 planting upon ground limestone nearly put me out of business." Cooper 

 (1914 c) believes that it will be necessary to use lime "rather freely where 

 heavy applications of stable manure are made or where green manure 

 crops are plowed under, to prevent possible excessive acidity and fungoid 

 or scab diseases." 



A method of soil treatment and enrichment is outlined by W. P. 

 Wright substantially as follows in Popular Garden Flowers: In autumn 

 remove the top soil and break up the subsoil, turning in a dressing of 

 three inches of decayed manure. If the ground is very stiff, leaf mold 

 and sand may be added. Leave the surface lumpy. In February, 

 spread on a coat of wood ashes, with an additional quantity of bone 

 flour, at the rate of three ounces per square yard, and fork it in. This 

 operation will simultaneously reduce the limips to small particles. 



H. H. Groff has used the same land for fifteen years, and the only 

 fertilizer he has needed is stable manure and hardwood ashes applied 

 in the autumn before plowing. Hardwood ashes are rich in potash and 

 phosphoric acid as well as in calcium. 



B. C. Auten prefers dried blood and steamed bone, with a top-dressing 

 of nitrate of soda and potassium sulfate or muriate. The fertilizer is 

 applied in the seed drill at the bottom of the furrow. Steamed bone 

 and bone meal are to be strongly advocated, since they possess the 

 necessary phosphoric acid and potash. 



Luther Burbank has used a complete fertilizer. 



G. B. Babcock uses a 4-9-1 1 Bowker's Market Gardener's Fertilizer 

 at the time of planting. 



N. L. Crawford has used an application of five hundred pounds of 

 potassium sulfate per acre at the time of planting, and from three to 

 five hundred pounds more in July or August. 



L. M. Gage applies barnyard manure in the fall, and a complete 

 potato fertilizer (4-7-10) in the drills at the time of planting. 



J. M. Bassett manures the soil thoroughly either in -spring or in fall, 

 and at planting time a commercial fertilizer is scattered along the furrow. 



S. E. Spencer places a little sheep manure in the furrow at the time 

 of planting, and works a chemical phosphate into the soil when the 

 buds start. 



C. W. Brown has used seven cords of manure per acre in the late fall, 

 plowing it under at opce to kill the witch grass. 



C. Hoeg distributes hardwood ashes at planting, and nitrate of soda 

 two or three times during the growing season. 



