How to manage a Garden 



is. Perhaps I can enlighten them. Fertility has a 

 different meaning for different crops. A land which 

 would produce excellent wheat might fail to produce 

 potatoes in like proportion. For a land to be really 

 fertile, it must possess a sufficiency of decayed animal 

 and vegetable matter in the soil, and the agents neces- 

 sary to cause that to be worked into a form suitable 

 to be received by the plant. A manure heap contains 

 plenty of plant food, but usually the agents necessary 

 to make it available are absent, or present in too great 

 a number. In a previous paragraph mention has been 

 made of the disposal of rubbish by working it, as 

 far as possible, back into the land. Of the value 

 of this process I am convinced. Whatever is brought 

 out of the land by the power of growth, and is not 

 required for use should be returned again, unless it is 

 likely to be injurious by causing greater growth of 

 weed. Apart from the manurial value of this matter, 

 it also solves for many of us an economic question, 

 for if not disposed of in this way there would neces- 

 sarily occur a large accumulation which would have 

 to be carted away at some expense. Therefore I re- 

 commend to all and sundry, whether they have plenty 

 of animal manure or whether they have not, to use all 

 vegetable refuse. 



i Animal Manure. 



The availability of animal manure will depend largely 

 on the resources of the holding. If pigs, poultry, &c., 

 are kept, there will probably be sufficient. To those 

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