68 GARDENING WITH BRAINS '^ 



Some gardeners are so lucky as to have soil 

 so rich in humus and chemical elements as to 

 need — for some years, at any rate — little or no 

 plant food. Many other gardens do their duty 

 thoroughly if they are enriched once a year with 

 plenty of stable manure. But, thanks to auto- 

 mobiles and farm tractors, stable manure is 

 becoming more and more difficult to buy and 

 the cost is excessive. 



The very important question thus confronts 

 the gardener, "Where can I get food for my 

 plants?" 



The answer is, from humus and chemicals. 

 The chemical food you can get from the seeds- 

 men. Most of them offer, by the pound or 

 hundred pounds, general manures useful for 

 vegetables and flowers; and if they are up-to- 

 date they will inform the readers of their cata- 

 logues what particular varieties their several 

 kinds of manure are good for. They also offer 

 the nitrates, phosphates, and potash compounds 

 separately, and you will find it extremely inter- 

 esting to study up this matter thoroughly, and 

 ultimately make your own mixtures. French's 

 book, to which I referred in the chapter on 

 * 'Vegetables We Should Grow Ourselves," gives 

 sufficient details for most purposes. 



You will soon be likely to have in your wood- 

 shed a bag of nitrate of soda to accelerate the 

 growth of plants grown for their leaves, like 

 \ lettuce, cabbage, and spinach (peas and beans 



