194 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



made stable manure valuable. With all the extension of rapid communica- 

 tion between the far South and the Northern cities, the great trade in early 

 vegetables and small fruits could never have grown up but for the commer- 

 cial fertilizers. 



Farmers who have been accustomed to the scattering of a hundred or 

 two pounds per acre of commercial fertilizers, find it hard to realize the 

 lavishness with which the wide-awake market gardener uses these forms of 

 plant food. Now, even the market gardeners near the large cities have found 

 cut that they, too, can more cheaply fertilize their acres with the chemical 

 manures and legumes, than by the hauling of so much stable manure, and a 

 very considerable part of the commercial fertilizers used nowadays is used by 

 gardeners, who do not hesitate to use them by the thousand pounds per acre 

 instead of the hundred of the farmer. 



While the wise gardener will always stock his land with organic matter 

 by the use of legumes, and will feed the same and make use of the manure 

 thus made, he knows that he cannot, like the general farmer, depend on these 

 alone as a source of nitrogen for his crops. There must be no lack of imme- 

 diately available plant food to urge on the early and rapid growth of his 

 crops, for upon their earliness and succulency depend the price he will get 

 for them, and he cannot afford to take the slower means that may be all 

 sufficient for the grower of wheat, corn or cotton. His crop has a higher 

 value per acre, and he can afford to use the fertilizers in a manner that would 

 be a lavish waste to the grain farmer. The great extension southward of the 

 culture of garden crops for a time caused the growers near the large cities 

 much uneasiness. When they saw their markets filled with Southern crops 

 at a season when they were but just planting, they came- to the conclusion 

 that their occupation was gone. But time has proved that each section has 

 now its own season in the markets, and that when the nearby gardeners 

 bring in their fresh supplies the distant man must draw out; so that now, 

 from the islands of the West Indies and Florida all the way to Canada, the 

 great cities draw supplies continuously without break, and the seasons for 

 certain vegetables and fruits run throughout the year. This great and con- 

 tinuous supply has been brought about, not only by rapid transportation, but 

 more largely through the general use of commercial fertilizers. 



COMPLETE FERTILIZERS ESSENTIAL TO THE PRODUCTION OF GARDEN CROPS. 



While, as we have shown, the grain farmer can, through the use of leg- 

 umes, avoid the purchase of an ounce of nitrogen, the market gardener must 

 use fertilizers rich in all the elements of plant food. This is especially true 



