Supplying Soil Needs 



185 



W. T. SkUlina 



FIG. 141. Making a compost heap. The boy at the left is putting on dirt, 

 the one at the right is adding manure, and the third is bringing refuse from the 

 garden. 



Manure has a very permanent good effect upon the 

 soil. At the great English experiment station at 

 Rothamstead a field was regularly manured each year 

 for twenty years. Then for twenty years more no 

 fertilizer was used. But in all this time the field did 

 not entirely lose the good effects of the manure which 

 had been used. It continued to yield a better crop 

 than did a similar field that had never been fertilized. 



In using manure it should be remembered that too 

 much will kill the crop instead of benefiting it. From 

 two to eight tons to the acre is considered a good quan- 

 tity for an ordinary field crop. Market gardeners some- 

 times use as much as forty or fifty tons to the acre. 

 (This would be about two pounds to each square foot.) 



How long 

 the effects 

 of manure 

 last 



Precautions 

 in the use of 

 manure; 

 quantity 



