100 THE BEGINNER'S GARDEN BOOK 



is put to this excellent use. Scraps of leather, hoofs, horns, 

 and hair, bones, fish, dried blood, and other waste products 



FIG. 56. Golden-banded lily, one of the most beautiful of flowers. How 

 does it depend upon chemicals ? 



of the factories, are used in this way. The Indians used fish 

 as fertilizers, and taught the use to the colonists. And we 

 can use these things as plant food because the plants have 

 a method of absorbing them. 



This is done by means of the root-hairs, whose walls give 

 out an acid. Vinegar is an acid, but a weak one ; there are 



