AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS 



or nitrogenous matter.* Consequently all liquid 

 manures must be largely diluted with water, and 

 all commercial nitrates, either made into a weak 

 solution or as solids, must be used most sparingly. 

 No commercial fertilizer should ever touch the 

 seeds or roots but should be thoroughly mixed 

 with fine, loose earth. 



Seedsmen and nursery men frequently sell an 

 all round or "general fertilizer." For school 

 garden experiments of small area, it is better to 

 buy separate fertilizers, as nitrate of soda for the 

 nitrates, wood ashes for potash, and ground bone 

 for the phosphates, mixing them when necessary 

 and just before use so as not to lose the more 

 volatile elements. The reason is founded on a 

 rough rule: feed nitrates for leafage and rapid 

 growth; potash for root and fruit crops, intensity 

 of color and increase in bloom; and phosphates 

 for early maturity and plump seeds. Another 

 rule is that commercial fertilizers, like tonics, 

 give quicker results, while natural fertilizers give 

 a slow, steady food supply throughout the season, 

 and by their physical properties improve the 

 soil for all time.f 



Plants often profit by a little extra feeding at 

 the start. Sickly plants and some others need a 



* It is also rich in potash. It contains from three to five times as 

 much nitrate and about nine times as much potash as the solid 

 manures which hold by far the larger percentage of phosphates. 



t Fertilizers may be rushed on for leafage crops and these rotated 

 with seed or grain crops the following year and these again by clover 



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