Manures for the Garden. — 45 



30 lbs. of phosphoric acid, and 20 lbs. of potash, and is 

 worth fully ^20-00 as manure. When mixed and composted 

 with stable manure it increases the comparative amount of nitro- 

 gen of the latter, and therefore its effectiveness. Gardeners who 

 keep stock should feed cotton-seed meal to the fullest extent that 

 it is safe to do. It then gives double returns, namely, in increase 

 of flesh, and improvement of manure. Where nitrate of soda, 

 on account of distance from source of supply and consequent 

 high cost, cannot be used advantageously, cotton-seed meal can 

 often be had at a comparatively low price, and should then be 

 used in place of the nitrogen compounds. 



Potash in any special form is hardly ever needed for the 

 crops on common garden land, since stable compost and the 

 average high-grade complete fertilizer supply an abundance, and 

 often an excess of it, to the crops already. A different thing it 



Spinach Fed with Nitrates, etc., and as Usually Grown. 



is with peaty and mucky soils. These have already an abun- 

 dance of the nitrogenous element, although mostly in fixed 

 combinations, and hence in an unavailable form. On the other 

 hand, the mineral elements are scantily supplied. Stable manure 

 would add a comparatively large amount of nitrogen at great 

 expense to the already vast store, and but small quantities of 

 phosphoric acid and potash. Such lands, for that reason, can be 

 made productive in the cheapest and quickest way by applications 

 of phosphoric acid and potash, in the form of a plain superphos- 

 phate, or bone meal, in combination with wood ashes. The 

 alkaline nature of the latter neutralizes injurious acids, and helps 

 to make nitrogen available. Unleached wood ashes can be 

 applied at the rate of 100 bushels and more per acre with perfect 

 safety, and leached ashes in much larger quantities. As means 

 of protecting crops against the ill effects of a prolonged drought, 

 however, wood ashes have no mean value on any soil. I will 

 refer to this subject in a future chapter. 



The question is often referred to me : " Will it pay a renter to 

 apply manures on land that he will or may have to vacate the next 



