The Busy Woman s Garden Book 



able the result will fall far short of what would 

 have been produced were the supply of humus 

 sufficient. 



Fortunately there are ways of restoring the 

 humus to worn out soils and on the small area 

 of the kitchen garden the process presents httle 

 if any difficulty. The most readily available 

 source of hmnus is found in a liberal application 

 of barnyard manure; this for the quickest and 

 most satisfactory results should be well rotted, 

 but not fired or leached — that is, it should have 

 been saved in such a way that the rain has not 

 washed the fertility out of it in the form of 

 liquid manure, or lack of moisture caused it to 

 heat and burn. The most satisfactory method 

 of handling manure is under shelter in a cement 

 bottom pit with a depression or well for the liquid 

 contents to drain into ; this is seldom available in 

 the town or city garden, but an enclosed pen for 

 the manure, where it can be kept in a compact 

 pile and where water can be turned on often 

 enough to prevent firing, answers very well ; bet- 

 ter still is it to draw the manure on the land as it 



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