90 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



mulations from the stock farming of our first thirty or forty years 

 are being put to good use, together with a considerable amount of 

 artificial fertilizers. There is also a constant demand for the wastes 

 of our towns and cities for gardening purposes. Our market gar- 

 deners have zeal for collecting the cleanings of city stables and our 

 amateur gardeners, both in villages and on farms, make, as a rule, 

 good use of the animal wastes which are available. They understand 

 the advantage of intensive work and of bringing small areas up to 

 maximum production, and they know that to raise large garden 

 crops one must apply manure without stint, but our field produc- 

 tion of staple vegetables is not intensive as yet, except as intensity 

 is included in natural fertility. This being the case, the writer does 

 not undertake prophecy. In a few years the progressive work which 

 is now under way, especially in Southern California, in trial of arti- 

 ficial manures for vegetable growing, will furnish object lessons for 

 general guidance. Present purposes will be best served by offering 

 suggestions as to the ways to turn natural supplies to best account. 



Comparative Value of Animal Manures. The excrements of 

 different animals serve somewhat different purposes in garden 

 practice because they act more or less quickly and are more or less 

 stimulating to the plant. There is also warrant in carrying with 

 the word stimluating the inference that in feeding plants, as in 

 treating animals, that which is most stimulating must be used with 

 the greatest caution. Both caution and economy prescribe that the 

 manure which has the highest content of plant food should be used 

 in less amount and more carefully distributed through the area of 

 soil which the roots of the plant are expected to traverse. 



The excrements of animals depend in composition upon the 

 abundance and richness of the food furnished them. The follow- 

 ing table is compiled from experiments and analyses made at Cornell 

 University, and there is no doubt that the stock was well fed. 



COMPOSITION AND VALUE OF FRESH MANURE FROM DIFFERENT 



ANIMALS. 



Nitrogen, Potash, Phosphoric Acid, Value per 



Animals. Percent. Percent. Percent. Ton. 



Cows 0.50 0.29 0.45 2.37 



Horses 0.47 0.94 0.39 2.79 



Sheep 1.00 1.21 0.08 4.19 



Swine 0.83 0.61 0.04 3.18 



Hens 1.10 0.29 0.47 4.22 



