GREEN MANURES 



27 



Animal manures, whether composted or not, form a better 

 balanced fertilizer for most vegetables than they do for general 

 farm crops, especially the cereal grains. This is because of their 

 relatively high content of nitrogen and potassium (especially the 

 former) as compared with phosphorus. Vegetables, especially 

 those of which a vegetative part (root, stem or leaf) constitutes 



the edible product, demand nitrogen in enormous quantities, and 

 are relatively light in their demands for phosphorus. 



GREEN MANURES 



Green, growing plants of any kind, that are plowed under 

 instead of being harvested or removed from the soil, may be 

 considered as ''green manure." Upon their decomposition the 

 plant food they contain becomes available for other plants, and 

 also during the process of their decomposition organic acids are 

 formed which help to dissolve plant food already present in the 

 soil and make it available to the succeeding crop. The indirect 



