252 SEEDING AND PLANTING 



soy bean, lupine, buckwheat, and rye, grown on the site and 

 plowed under. 



b. Fertilizers of vegetable origin, such as forest litter and other 

 refuse from the nursery mixed with rich loam, raw humus, turf or 

 peat and composted for one or two years before using. 



c. Fertilizers of animal origin, such as dried blood, guano, bone, 

 tankage, and similar products. These materials are particularly 

 rich in phosphorus and nitrogen in available form or in a form 

 which gradually becomes available in the soil. 



d. Fertilizers of animal and vegetable origin mixed, such as 

 stable manure. The excrement of all kinds of warm-blooded 

 animals mixed with straw, sawdust, or other litter. 



e. Fertilizers of mineral origin, such as nitrate of potash, 

 kainit, superphosphates, saltpeter, Thomas slag, hardwood ashes, 

 turf ashes, lime, gypsum, clay, and sand. Many of these are rich 

 in nitrogen, phosphorus, or potash. The last four, however, are 

 chiefly valuable in improving the physical qualities of certain 

 soils. 1 



25. The Use and Application of Fertilizers of Vegetable Ori- 

 gin. Fertilizing materials of vegetable origin should, as a 

 rule, be thoroughly composted before they are applied to the soil, 

 particularly the seedbed. They are slow to break down and mix 

 with the mineral soil when applied in fresh condition. Ney 2 and 

 other European writers emphasize the advantages from bringing 

 them together and composting until they are thoroughly disinte- 

 grated and broken down irdo small particles. Hardwood leaves, 

 moss, and other forest litter, when well decayed, are particularly 

 useful for adding in liberal quantities to heavy impermeable soils. 

 An application of a dressing from 2 to 4 inches in depth is very 

 beneficial before the soil is turned over in the autumn, when 

 seedbeds are to be made the following spring. The large quantity 

 of fertilizers of vegetable origin necessary to make a radical change 

 in the physical condition of the soil or to add adequately to soil 

 fertility makes the cost of application excessive when they are 

 brought to the nursery from a distance. The same results can 

 usually be obtained at much less cost by crop rotation and the 

 growing of soiling plants. Even when soiling crops are made use 



1 Vonhausen, Wilhelm : Die Diingung der Forstgarten. (Allgemeine Forst- 

 u. Jagd-Zeitung, S. 228-231. 1872.) 



2 Ney, C. E.: Die Lehre vom Waldbau. S. 228. Berlin, 1885. 



