The Soil of the Garden 63 



or commercial fertilizers ; and it is often advisable that 

 these should be liberally supplied. 



Manures. The best fertilizers for gardens are manures. 

 A ton of the usual quality of stable manure that has not 

 been exposed to the weather contains 8.3 pounds of po- 

 tassium (or 10 pounds of potash), 10 pounds of nitrogen, 

 and 3 pounds of phosphorus (or 5 pounds of phosphoric 

 acid), which have a combined value of about $3.00. 

 Besides supplying these foods, manure improves the 

 physical condition of soil by the humus which it contains. 

 A ton of manure will cover about 4 square rods of area. 

 As stable manure is deficient in phosphorus, it is advis- 

 able to add about 2- pounds of acid phosphate to this area. 



Coarse manure may be applied in autumn and plowed 

 or spaded under, but there will be some loss of its sub- 

 stances in the soil water. Well-rotted manures and rich, 

 readily soluble manures, like poultry manure, should be 

 supplied at the time of spading in spring. These may 

 be plowed or spaded in, or a part may be spread on the 

 surface after the spading is done, and raked into the up- 

 permost layers of the soil. 



Poultry manure can often be secured by the gardener. 

 It is the richest in nitrogen of all farm manures ; but 

 this nitrogen is easily lost by decomposition, particularly 

 during warm weather, or if the manure is subject to 

 leaching. To conserve its materials and use them to 

 the best advantage, the following rules should be ob- 

 served : 



The poultry manure should be dried quickly and 

 kept so until used. Wood ashes should never be mixed 

 with manures, and especially with poultry manure, as they 



