68 GARDENING WITH BRAINS *$ 



Some gardeners are so lucky as to have soil 

 so rich in humus and chemical elements as to 

 need for some years, at any rate little or no 

 plant food. Many other gardens do their duty 

 thoroughly if they are enriched once a year with 

 plenty of stable manure. But, thanks to auto- 

 mobiles and farm tractors, stable manure is 

 becoming more and more difficult to buy and 

 the cost is excessive. 



The very important question thus confronts 

 the gardener, "Where can I get food for my 

 plants?" 



The answer is, from humus and chemicals. 

 The chemical food you can get from the seeds- 

 men. Most of them offer, by the pound or 

 hundred pounds, general manures useful for 

 vegetables and flowers; and if they are up-to- 

 date they will inform the readers of their cata- 

 logues what particular varieties their several 

 kinds of manure are good for. They also offer 

 the nitrates, phosphates, and potash compounds 

 separately, and you will find it extremely inter- 

 esting to study up this matter thoroughly, and 

 ultimately make your own mixtures. French's 

 book, to which I referred in the chapter on 

 "Vegetables We Should Grow Ourselves," gives 

 sufficient details for most purposes. 



You will soon be likely to have in your wood- 

 shed a bag of nitrate of soda to accelerate the 

 growth of plants grown for their leaves, like 

 lettuce, cabbage, and spinach (peas and beans 



