206 CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS 



those of the cottage type, the potato holds a pre-eminent 

 place, and may be planted on one half of the garden in each 

 alternate year, the other portion of the garden being devoted 

 to a miscellaneous collection of vegetables. In opening up 

 new ground for such gardens, it is best to dress such grass, 

 rubbish or weeds as may occur at the surface, with lime and 

 basic slag. If one has to bury turf, one may as well bury 

 good turf as bad turf. The land should then be double dug, 

 trenched or bastard trenched, and the turf buried at the 

 bottom. If possible some good manure should be buried 

 along with it, and potatoes grown in the first year. It is not 

 usually necessary to apply very much nitrogen or potash 

 manure in the first year, although if the soil be rather light 

 a little sulphate of potash will do good to the potatoes. After 

 the potatoes have been taken away the land should be well 

 forked over and manured with basic slag ; mixed vegetables 

 are grown in the second year. All excepting the peas and 

 beans may be top dressed with sulphate of ammonia, and on 

 light and calcareous soils the top dressing may be a mixture 

 of superphosphate, sulphate of ammonia, potash salts and a 

 little common salt (sodium chloride). 



Little direct use of fertilizer is practicable in ordinary 

 forestry work ; in the forestry nursery, however, there is 

 some room for artificial fertilizers. The land should first 

 of all be drained and treated with basic slag, and perhaps 

 lime in addition, depending upon the nature of the soil 

 and the class of stock it is proposed to raise. Farmyard 

 manure should also be dug in. Potatoes should then be 

 grown; after the removal of the potatoes the land can be 

 converted into an ordinary forest nursery. If it is necessary 

 to use some rather poor sandy soil as a nursery, potash 

 manures should not be omitted ; on light soils much organic 

 matter in the form of leaf litter should be used. 



REFERENCES TO SECTION II. 



Hall, " Rothamsted Experiments," p. 190 (John Murray). 

 Gilchrist, " Guide to Experiments for 1918," p. 39 (Ward, Newcastle). 

 Dyer, " Fertilizers and Feeding Stuffs " (Crosby Lockwood). 

 Warrington, " Chemistry of the Farm," p. 65 (Vinton). 

 " Monthly Notes on Manures," Journ. Board, of Agric. 



