The Busy Woman s Garden Book 



mixed with the manure or applied at the same 

 time as they tend to release the ammonia con- 

 tained in the manure and as ammonia spells 

 nitrate — the most costly of all our commercial 

 fertilizers — the ashes should rather be broad- 

 casted over the ground after the manure is turned 

 in and then mixed with the soil by dragging and 

 harrowing. 



There are fourteen different chemical elements 

 that are necessaiy for plant growth — carbon, 

 hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sul- 

 phur, chlorine, silicon, calcium, iron, potassium, 

 sodium, magnesium and manganese; the first 

 four are derived directly or indirectly from the 

 air, the remainder from the soil. Virgin soil con- 

 tains all these soil-derived elements in available 

 form and in sufficient quantities for plant growth, 

 and it has the power to absorb the elements which 

 are derived from the air, but our short sighted 

 methods of soil cultivation, or robbery, deplete 

 the soil of some of its elements faster than it can 

 convert them into available food for the plants. 

 Liberal applications of manure replace the loss 

 more quickly and economically than any other 



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