96 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



leach away, and for gases which are prone to fly off. Probably 

 the best absorbent for both purposes is ground gypsum, which is 

 now very cheaply furnished from local sources in several parts 

 of the state. It adds value of its own in addition to its absorbent 

 properties. A very abundant material in an arid country is road 

 dust. It, too, will take up both liquids and gases. In village gardens 

 with paved streets and well-watered soil, sifted coal ashes act well 

 in the hen-house and on the manure pile, and the cinders which are 

 sifted out are a good foundation for permanent garden walks. The 

 free use of the fine coal ashes has for years kept the writer's fowls 

 without a case of swell-head, has rid the hen-house of all odor, and 

 has furnished many wagon loads of home-made fertilizer which is 

 perfectly safe to use freely as the hen manure is diffused through 

 quite a bulk of material. The effect of large use of these sifted coal 

 ashes on an adobe garden has well-nigh taken the hatefulness out 

 of it and made it into a loam delightful to put tools into. 



Manure as a Mulch. Market gardeners operating with heavy 

 soils use immense quantities of barn-yard manure both composted 

 with garden wastes and as fresh manure. The latter is largely 

 used as a mulch or top dressing during the rainy season to prevent 

 heavy rain from compacting the soil around the young plants and 

 to get the richness of the manure by leaching. They use it in sum- 

 mer also to prevent surface evaporation and to prevent compacting 

 the surface when the water is hand-thrown with scoop or pan from 

 the ditches between the raised beds. This is to help small plants 

 with their rooting; afterwards they take water by percolation from 

 the ditch. The free surface use of fresh coarse manure, to be after- 

 wards forked in, is safe on heavy clay, which the gardener is en- 

 deavoring to lighten up, but if coarse manure is used as a mulch 

 on light sandy soil, it should be raked up and taken to the compost 

 heap, as only thoroughly decomposed manure should be worked into 

 such soil. 



Wood Ashes. Coal ashes have no estimable manurial value; 

 their effect is mechanical just as is the effect of adding sand to 

 clay, but wood ashes as well as plant ashes of all kinds, is in- 

 trinsically an excellent fertilizer, since it contains the soil ingredi- 

 ents required by all plants,, even though in different proportions. 

 The value of ash varies materially in accordance with the degree 

 of heat to which it has been subjected when made. In general 

 the hotter the fire, the less active will be the ash as a fertilizer. 



