54 AROUND THE YEAR IN THE GARDEN 



nitrate of soda, in addition to what you will want to use in 

 preparing your garden, so that you can use them as a top 

 dressing throughout the season. Fifty or seventy-five 

 pounds of bone flour and twenty-five or fifty pounds of 

 nitrate of soda will be enough for the small garden. They 

 are equally useful for flowers, lawns and shrubs, and for 

 small fruits and vegetables. 



Fertilizers should be applied broadcast after the ground 

 has been plowed or spaded and then thoroughly harrowed 

 or raked in. From 100 to 250 pounds to a space of fifty 

 by one hundred feet should add plenty of plant food to 

 your garden. If manure is used, or the ground is in good 

 condition, less may be used. 



Most soils, whether light or heavy, that have been under 

 cultivation for some time need lime. If wild sorrel grows 

 freely about your garden you need lime. Or you can get a 

 little blue litmus paper at the drug store, moisten it, and 

 insert it in a slit in your garden soil; if it changes to pink 

 or red use lime freely. This may be put on two or three 

 times as thick as you would put fertilizers. 



The best form of lime to use, especially at this time of 

 the year, is ground, raw limestone, which is not caustic in 

 its action. This should, however, be so fine that much of it 

 is like flour. It should not cost you more than fifty or sixty 

 cents a hundred pounds. Put the lime on as early in spring 

 as possible. 



