3G6 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



rains wash, it down quite low enough. : and if we might ad- 

 vise, we should recommend all manures to be generally instead 

 of partially applied, because you can better calculate the heart 

 in the ground than when the crop is made to clear off all the 

 fertilising qualities in the first season. We dislike all tem- 

 porarj" applications of permanent manures. T\Tien the ground 

 is all aUke, there is some calculation of what it can do, and 

 what it requires ; but when the fertilizer is confined to the 

 ridge which is soAvn, and the other portions of the ground go 

 without, there is no drawing a fair conclusion. We know 

 the doctrine preached is that of putting on only what the 

 crop will take off, and then the ground is alike after the crop is 

 gone. Experience does not justify tliis. Try the experiment ; 

 plant or sow on the drill, and between the diill and see if they 

 grow alike. J^ot a bit of it. Let the gardener apply his manure 

 alike all over the piece, as if he were going to sow broadcast ; 

 he can then always judge what it mil require, or if it will 

 require anything, for the next crop, much better than if he 

 partially dressed just where his plants are to grow. Salts of 

 all kinds and chemical manures should always be mixed with 

 three, four, or five times their weight of sand or light earth, 

 and then laid evenly over the surface. He may then fork it 

 in with the top three or four inches ; and having given it a 

 good soaking with water, it may be prepared at any time for 

 sowing by merely raking the surface, and it is ready for 

 planting without raking. 



All ground ought to be dug well before any of the chemical 

 or easily soluble manures are applied, because it does not 

 answer to put them in so deep as dung is usually put. But 

 the most even way of applying soluble dressings is in water, 

 sufficiently diluted that the soil may be equally wetted three 

 or four inches de°p. 



Among the popular manures of the present day there are 

 many which are efi&cacious or mischievous according to the 

 quantity. Salt, for instance, may be applied at the rate of 

 3 cwt. per acre T\T.th advantage ; but Mr. Johnson sajs it 

 may be given at the rate of 12 cwt. We know that crops 

 have been killed with less, but that says nothing. Alum, by 

 the same authority, must only be given at the rate of 40 lbs. 

 per acre. Bone dust, or calcined bones, a ton and a half as 

 the maximum, half the qj.iantity as a minimum. Carbonate 

 of ammonia 160 lbs. ; carbonate of soda, from 160 to 640 lbs. 



