64 GARDENING WITH BRAINS 



valuable for potatoes and other crops that dote 

 on this chemical than most of the commercial 

 fertilizers. 



TECHNIC OF GARDENING 



Was I right in saying a gardener must know 

 a thing or two? What I have said is onfy a 

 sample of the tremendous advantage a man who 

 knows has in the garden over an ignoramus. 

 It must be big knowledge, too; a little knowl- 

 edge is a dangerous thing. If, for instance, 

 knowing how ashes help your potatoes and car- 

 rots and beets and oyster plants, you apply 

 them to your lettuce bed, you'll ruin it; the 

 plants, instead of heading, will go to seed and 

 quit. What they need is not the starch-and- 

 sugar-producing potash, but a chemical which 

 promotes leaf growth, like nitrate of soda, 

 which, however, must be applied very carefully, 

 so as not to burn the roots and leaves; or, 

 better still, the rather expensive ammonium 

 nitrate, "probably the fastest fertilizer we shall 

 ever have." 



Tickle the soil with a hoe, indeed! Most 

 farmers do just about that in their gardens, and 

 that's why they seldom have any vegetables, 

 or any that are fit to eat. Instead of first 

 tickling the soil, let me tell you what I do in 

 my garden. After it has been plowed and the 

 old stable manure harrowed in, I put in garden 

 sticks to mark the vegetables I want to raise 



