LARGER FRUIT AND FLOWERS 



solved in water. Put one teaspoon of nitrate of 

 soda into one quart of water and stir until it is 

 all dissolved. Be sure you do not get it too close to 

 the plants. Nitrate of soda is a chemical and when 

 dissolved in water will give to your plants just 

 what our peas and beans and clovers take out of the 

 air; so these plants do not need it as much as the 

 plants which cannot take it from the air. 



You may use chicken or pigeon droppings. Mix 

 them with four times as much soil (we will say 

 one bucket of droppings and four buckets of soil). 

 This must be mixed very thoroughly and allowed 

 to stand two weeks or more so some of the ammonia 

 can escape. It is a very strong plant food. When 

 it is ready spread some around each plant or between 

 the rows and rake it into the soil. Use this only 

 once a month, as it is not used up by the plants as 

 quickly as either liquid manure or nitrate of soda, 

 but keeps on dissolving for a long time. 



An old fashioned way to grow melons and cu- 

 cumbers was around a half barrel which was sunk 

 into the ground and filled with manure. Holes had 

 been bored around the sides of the barrel and all the 

 dish water and waste water from the house were 

 poured into the barrel as I have already described. 

 You see the water would absorb some of the manure 



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