IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH 75 



horse manure very successfully when the 

 liquid was the colour of very weak tea. 

 These are mussy to handle. Neater are the 

 special plant foods put up in tablet, liquid, 

 or powder forms. These can be bought in 

 the local stores, or ordered from the cata- 

 logues of seedsmen. 



If you wish to make a good liquid fertilizer 

 at home the following recipe will give satis- 

 faction. To one gallon of water add eight 

 ounces of nitrate of soda, sixteen ounces 

 of monobasic calcium phosphate, and ten 

 ounces of sulphate of potash. For use 

 dilute it, using one part of this stock 

 solution to thirty parts of water, and use 

 it about once a week. 



COAL OR FURNACE GAS 



Perhaps the greatest enemy of plants 

 grown in houses heated by hot air furnaces 

 or coal stoves is coal gas. An otherwise 

 imperceptible trace of it in the air will 

 cause the leaves of some plants (as Jerusalem 

 cherry) to drop off promptly. With a good 

 chimney draught and with proper regulation 

 of the dampers when attending to the fire 

 there should be no trouble from this source. 



