Manures for the Garden. 39 



most likely is none other than one of the standard sorts they have 

 in their own garden, the only difference being that my ground 

 was manured with one ton per acre of high-grade complete 

 fertilizer, and a good top dressing of composted hen manure, with 

 frequent but very light applications of nitrate of soda, while my 

 neighbors grounds were fed with extravagant quantities of stable 

 compost. The same method of feeding crops has always enabled 

 me to grow celery and other plants, and celery for the table also, 

 in great perfection. 



In cotton-seed meal we have another nitrogenous manure of 

 special value for the market gardener, but as yet very little 

 appreciated or used. A ton contains about 140 Ibs. of nitrogen, 

 60 Ibs. of phosphoric acid, and 40 Ibs. of potash, and is 

 worth fully $3$.oo as manure. When mixed and composted 

 with stable manure it increases the comparative amount of nitro- 



Spinach Fed with Nitrates, etc., and as Usually Grown. 



gen of the latter, and therefore its effectiveness. Gardeners who 

 keep stock should feed cotton-seed meal to the fullest extent that 

 it is safe to do. It then gives double returns, namely, in increase 

 of flesh, and improvement of manure. Where nitrate of soda, 

 on account of distance from source of supply and consequent 

 high cost, cannot be used advantageously, cotton-seed meal can 

 often be had at a comparatively low price, and should then be 

 used in place of the nitrogen compounds. 



Potash in any special form is hardly ever needed for the 

 crops on common garden land, since stable compost and the 

 average high-grade complete fertilizer supply an abundance, and 

 often an excess of it, to the crops already. A different thing it 

 is with peaty and mucky soils. These have already an abun- 

 dance of the nitrogenous element, although mostly in fixed 

 combinations, and hence in an unavailable form. On the other 

 hand, the mineral elements are scantily supplied. Stable manure 

 would add a comparatively large amount of nitrogen at great 

 expense to the already vast store, and but small quantities of 

 phosphoric acid and potash. Such lands, for that reason, can be 



