AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 65 



For special uses, it has long been a practice in " the rural 

 districts" to prepare liquid manure artificially by putting wa- 

 ter upon hen manure or other material in a barrel, stirring it 

 once in a while, and using it when it has settled for various 

 crops, particularly onions, for the raising of which in a superior 

 manner it has had for fifty years a sort of farmers' patent. It 

 may, however, be made useful to almost all crops, particularly 

 upon poor land, and where light manuring has been unavoid- 

 able. In a tank, such as that described p. 33, it is easy to pre- 

 pare it in quantity by adding as may be found necessary ma- 

 nure from the hen-roost, or poudrette, or guano, either of which, 

 or a mixture of them, may be used in the proportion of- about 

 one barrel of either of the two former or twenty pounds of the 

 latter to a hundred gallons of water. On each occasion for its 

 use, after the quantity required has been taken out, it should 

 be thoroughly stirred, adding water or manure, if necessary. 



It may be made in a barrel at discretion, with one pound of 

 guano, or ta - feu, to from three to five gallons of water, or- 

 with a mixture of bone-dust and sheep manure, or with pou-- 

 drette and hen manure, without special regard to proportions, 

 but applying it carefully to the earth around the plant, and not 

 to its foliage. With this view, whenever it is applied to grow- 

 ing crops, a watering-pot without the rose should be used ; but 

 in applying it to ground that is not sown, or in which the seed 

 has not yet sprouted, the rose should be upon the watering-pot. 

 The repeated and moderate use of it is better than an excessive 

 supply at once, and evening will be found the best time for its 

 application. 



