86 



is always moving. Organic manures should, therefore, not be 

 neglected, but you should apply commercial fertilisers at the time 

 the tree is expected to produce a large crop. Young trees need 

 not more than 260 Ib. of sulphate of ammonia, or 360 Ib. nitrate of 

 soda, 260 Ib. of superphosphate or 300 Ib. of Thomas 

 phosphate, 60 Ib. muriate of potash, and 44 Ib. sulphate of iron per 

 acre. In medium clayey soils, Senor Alino omits potash for old 

 trees, but gives from 80 to 110 Ib. wood ashes or from vine cuttings. 

 Gypsum and sulphate of iron fix the fruit, and are repressing the 

 excessive growth of wood and leaves by directing the fertilising ele- 

 ments to the fruit. To prevent the dropping of the fruit nitrogen 

 may be most required, as it is always more quickly absorbed than 

 phosphates and potash, and. therefore, perhaps not present in suffi- 

 cient quantity. 



MANURING OF GARDEN CROPS VEGETABLES AND 



FRUIT. 



These are generally heavily manured with dung, and it may yet- 

 be more or less true what Dr. Bernard Dyer said of British Gardens 

 three years ago: "Nowhere is the worship of dung more devoutly 

 practised than in market gardens/' But, although dung adds to the 

 store of humus or organic matter in the soil, and corrects the 

 physical shortcomings in rendering the condition of the soil more 

 porous and capable of holding more moisture, it requires more 

 frequent and heavier rains than we get in many localities in Aus- 

 tralia, and on that account is the plant food in dung, especially 

 the nitrogen, still later available than elsewhere. 



If you are trenching for a vegetable garden nothing is better 

 than to bring into the subsoil as much as from 10 to 16 cwt. of 

 Thomas phosphate, 10 cwt. of muriate of potash, and from 50 to 

 60 cwt. of burnt lime for heavy clay soils, or marl for sand. You 

 may then for some years use chiefly nitrogenous manures, and 

 nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia for the particular crops, in 

 such quantities as hereinafter indicated, and perhaps some super- 

 phosphate or Thomas phosphate. 



It is one of the great advantages, which some of the com- 

 mercial manures have, that they need no conversion. They are 

 in such soluble form as to feed the plants at once, and force them 

 on, so that the crop is much earlier ready for the market or table, 

 and also better able to resist disease or attacks from insects. Still, 

 gardeners, while they collect, cart, and distribute dung with great 

 labor, if not at great direct expense, do not seem to value commer- 

 cial fertilisers sufficiently, and a comparison may find here its place. 

 Even the best dung does not contain more than 16 Ib. of 

 nitrogen to the ton, more likely from 8 .to 11 Ib., from 8 to 17 

 Ib. of potash, from 4 to 9 Ib. of phosphoric acid, and from 10 to 39 

 Ib. of lime. Ten tons of dung may contain 100 Ib. of nitrogen and 

 100 Ib. of nitrate of soda, 16 Ib. of it, and yet, as the former has 

 to be converted by nitrification, the latter will" produce better re- 

 sults, beino- at once available, both feeding and stimulating, espe- 



