10 MAKING HORTICULTURE PAY 



food, but are capable of supplying it in such forms 

 as to enable the plants to absorb it at once. That 

 is, there is no necessity for any delay, in order that 

 the plant food constituents themselves may be made 

 available. 



" Fertilizers are, therefore, capable of supplying 

 the needed requirements when other conditions are 

 favorable and may be grouped into three classes, 

 i. e., general, specific, and basic. That is, a general 

 formula would be one that is not made for any 

 specific crop, but which contains both soluble and 

 insoluble forms, with the idea of building up the 

 soil in the constituents, rather than meeting the 

 special requirements of any one crop. 



GENERAL FERTILIZER FORMULAS 



" The specific formulas are those which are made 

 up for the purpose of meeting a particular need of 

 the crop, at a particular time, and basic formulas 

 may be regarded as those which contain large quan- 

 tities of all of the best forms of plant food. They 

 are to be used as a base for supplying garden crops 

 with their general needs, with the idea that amend- 

 ments may be made of nitrogen, or of other con- 

 stituents, as the conditions seem to require. A 

 general formula, for example, may be made up of a 

 mixture of, say: 



Ground bone 250 lbs. 



Acid phosphate 500 lbs. 



Muriate of potash 250 lbs. 



" This will supply, not large quantities of nitro- 

 gen, but considerable of the minerals, and so fortify 

 the soil in this respect. It should be applied at the 

 rate of 500 to i.ooo pounds an acre, depending upon 

 conditions. 



