THE MANURING OF MARKET GARDEN CROPS 



GEO. CAMi'JJKLL ARXOTT, MEMO. AM. CHEM. SOC, MEMB. ROV. AG. SOC. OF ENGLAND, ETC. 



W' HILST there is no excuse for the 

 farmer not knowing how to 

 manure his acres most profitably, the mar- 

 ket gardener is entitled to more indulgence. 

 The farmer is in the happy position of hav- 

 ing placed at his disposal a vast amount of 

 information gathered from carefully con- 

 ducted experiments of practical men ex- 

 tending over many years, both in Europe and 

 on this continent, whereas very little atten- 

 tion has been bestowed upon a rational sys- 

 tem of manuring in horticulture and garden 

 crops. 



Seeing that the same quantity of plant 

 food, nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash 

 required, for example, to produce a given 

 quantity of mangels, "grass, sugar beet, and 

 other farm produce, can furnish a similar 

 quantity of cauliflowers, green peas, salad, 

 and similar garden produce, it requires no 

 intricate calculations to see which is the 

 most profitable investment. 



The yield in garden vegetables being so 

 much greater, the farmer having to be con- 

 tent with one crop per year, whereas the 

 market gardener endeavors to obtain two or 

 three crops in the same period, it followsi 

 that two or three times as much plant food 

 is required per acre as is the case in ordinary 

 field cultivation. 



Success in the growing of vegetables de- 

 pends particularly on the time when mar- - 

 keted, the quality of the product, and the 

 yield per acre. It is a matter of experience 

 that the earlier the vegetables are marketed 

 the higher the price which will be secured, 

 and that the early gathering of one crop 

 permits the growing of another on the same 

 soil the same season. The importance of 

 being first in the market is appreciated by 

 gardeners, and their constant aim is to be 

 first in order to secure top prices. To do 

 this and to be on the safe side the market 

 gardener cannot afford to experiment and 

 run the risk of failure. The increased 



profit secured by the gain of a week is so 

 large that if there is any way of securing it 

 that method must be utilized to its fullest 

 extent. 



JIEAVY MANURING A NECESSITY. 



The product of the market garden being 

 mostly consumed in the larger cities the 

 gardens are usually situated within a rea- 

 sonable distance of them, and consequently 

 able to obtain large quantities of stable and 

 barnyard manure fairly cheaply. This, no 

 doubt, explains the reason why heavy 

 manuring has come to be considered a 

 necessity for the successful growing of 

 vegetables. 



In the few text books which have been 

 written the authors do not seem to have 

 grasped the subject of manuring thorough- 

 1\', for they hardly go beyond naming as 

 artificial or chemical manures such sub- 

 stances as bones, tankage, composts, horn 

 shavings, wool and other refuse matters 

 which are all very slow in their action, and 

 even then all the plant food does not become 

 available. 



Slow acting manures are very well for 

 the farmer who is not up to date and whose 

 one crop is drawing its nourishment from 

 the soil for six months and in some cases 

 even longer, but the market gardener needs 

 to get two or three crops off in the same 

 time and cannot afford to depend on these 

 slow acting, incomplete and dilute manures. 

 The use of quickly available, that is, solu- 

 ble, complete chemical manures has been 

 conclusively proved to be the best and cheap- 

 est means of forcing garden crops on a large 

 scale. 



INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. 



The most valuable contribution, to our 

 knowledge, on this subject is to be found in 

 the data obtained by that celebrated agri- 

 cultural chemist, Dr. B. Dyer, at his experi- 

 ment farm in Kent, England, on market 

 garden crops extending over nine years. 



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