70 HORTICULTURE LECT. iv 



(1) 1 Ib. of guano, or (2) 1 Ib. of superphosphate and \ Ib. 

 nitrate of soda, in 20 gallons of water ; or (3) half a peck of 

 soot, or a peck of poultry, pigeon, or animal manure, in 30 

 gallons of water. No manures act so quickly as those in a 

 liquid state. Those named are for garden use, and would be 

 too strong by half for plants in pots. 



11. WATERING. Evening is the best time for watering the 

 ground in hot weather. Daily sprinklings on sunny mornings 

 do more harm than good, as the evaporation then quickly follow- 

 ing abstracts warmth from the soil ; one copious weekly watering 

 of crops in the open ground in the evening is much more effectual 

 a supply equal to nearly an inch of rain ; this is 23, 000 gallons 

 per acre. An easily remembered equivalent is half a gallon to 

 the square foot, or four and a half gallons to the square yard of 

 surface. That may be regarded as a good and effective watering 

 for flower beds, vegetable crops, or fruit bushes esta-blished in 

 the ground. 



12. COMMON MANURES. These include all decaying vegetable 

 matter accumulated during the year from the garden, and placed 

 in a neat heap to decompose. If to such a heap there be added, 

 in the course of turning it, some soot and sewage matter, also, in 

 the summer, soapsuds with house and chamber slops, decom- 

 position will be hastened and the mass considerably enriched. 

 Collected horse-droppings, roadside trimmings, ditch scourings, 

 leaves gathered in the autumn, and all such common things, 

 properly decomposed by occasional turnings, help to fertilize the 

 ground, and are good for all crops and soils, especially land of a 

 heavy nature. 



