208 GARDEN AND FARM TOPICS. 



prefer it to any other. It will be understood, that by 

 this method the plants only occupy the ground about ten 

 or eleven months, from the time the plants are set out in 

 July or August until the fruit is gathered in June. As I 

 have before said, we alternate the Strawberry crop with 

 vegetables. Our samples of Cabbage, Cauliflower, Rad- 

 ishes, Lettuce, etc., in our trial grounds, occupy the same 

 space, so that when the ground is cleared of these in June 

 or July, the Strawberry layers are planted in their place; 

 while a crop of Celery takes the place of the Strawberry 

 crop that had fruited, so that the ground is never allowed 

 to lie idle. 



The question of fertilizers, for the use of the market 

 garden, is now becoming a very serious one for the market 

 gardeners, in such cities as New York, where the manure 

 from the stables does not increase in the ratio of the 

 lands cultivated, as, perhaps, half of all the products grown 

 are shipped to adjacent towns and cities. Still there are 

 few market gardeners who do not use stable manure, 

 which costs, when fit to go on the land, from $2 to $3 

 per ton. This is put on in spring, at the rate of from 

 fifty to seventy-five tons per acre, which is often supple- 

 mented by half a ton of Peruvian Guano or Bone Dust, 

 which is sown on the land and harrowed in, after the 

 stable manure has been plowed in. A great many 

 fertilizers are used besides Peruvian Guano and Bone 

 Dust, such as Fish Guano, Dry Blood Fertilizer, Blood 

 and Bone Fertilizer, together with the various brands of 

 Phosphates; but the majority of cultivators prefer pure 

 Bone Meal or Peruvian Guano to all others. 



I saw a list the other day, wherein was enumerated no 

 less than sixteen separate kinds of special fertilizers for 

 thirty different crops, with the chemical elements of each 

 split down to even one-half of one per cent. Now, I 



