48 SATURDAY IN MY GARDEN 



will easily dissolve when brought into contact with the moisture 

 in the atmosphere and in the soil. This will be found to be the 

 case with all the commoner animal manures generally used as 

 plant foods, and experiment will show that mineral manures, such 

 as guano, nitrate of soda, kainit, and salt are easily soluble also. 

 What then are the essential plant foods which it should 

 be the aim of the gardener constantly to supply ? The three 

 primary elements that contribute to the building up of plant life 



are : 



(1) Phosphate, which helps to maintain the framework or 



hard, woody material of plants ; 



(2) Potash, or salt, which forms tissue, fruits, and seeds ; and 



(3) Nitrogen, or nitrate of soda, which helps to make leaves 



or soft stems. 



The use of these scientific terms, which one finds so frequently 

 employed in connection with artificial chemical manures, might 

 tempt the beginner in gardening to hasten to use them. He 

 would probably employ them indiscriminately, and therefore 

 harmfully. Most of the artificial fertilisers are what are known 

 as incomplete manures, for the very good reason that they do 

 not contain something of every food element which plants require 

 for their nourishment. Animal manures, on the other hand 

 especially those obtained from the farmyard are complete 

 manures, because they embody in varying degree, but with a 

 properly balanced share of each in their composition, all the 

 foods which any plant is likely to require. It follows, therefore, 

 that for ordinary gardening purposes a judicious and frequent 

 use of good, well-decayed farmyard or stable manure will supply 

 all that is necessary in the building up and sustenance of plant life. 



But there are other natural fertilisers that may be used with 

 excellent supplementary effect in the small garden. Their 

 elements are both vegetable and mineral, and they include decom- 

 posing green crops, such as the haulm of potatoes, peas, beans, 

 and the stumps and leaves of cabbages, brussels sprouts, cauli- 

 flowers and so on ; the decayed leaves of trees, especially and 

 preferably those of the oak ; pond mud, if it can be secured ; 



