I2O 



Nature-Study Agriculture 



of lime 



W. T. Skilling 



FIG. 97. A sale of garden vegetables that were raised by pupils on the 

 grounds of a city school. 



is needed to make a garden pay for the labor and time 

 that is expended upon it ; but even if the soil is naturally 

 poor, it can be so improved as to produce fine results. 

 If the soil is a stiff clay, hard to work and liable to bake 

 badly, it may be greatly improved by working into it 

 Two effects several loads of sand. Also, if air-slaked lime is applied 

 at the rate of a ton to the acre or about five pounds to 

 one hundred square feet, it makes such soil looser and 

 much easier to work, and it overcomes sourness. (Exp. 

 i.) It is said that a French gardener can make a suc- 

 cessful garden on the top of a building. All that he 

 needs for it is a few loads of earth and plenty of 

 fertilizer. 



Well-rotted barnyard manure is a safe fertilizer for 

 any soil or crop. It may not possess in large enough 

 proportions some of the needed plant foods, but it has 

 some of all of them. Besides, it changes into humus 

 and so makes the physical condition of the soil better. 

 Market gardeners sometimes use as high as 40 tons of 



Manure; 



amount 



allowable 



