38 GARDE^IKG FOR PROFIT. 



fact that when lands are first broken up from the forest 

 or meadow lands, for three or four years the organic 

 matter in the soil the roots of grasses, leaves, etc. not 

 only serves to feed the crops, but it keeps the soil in a 

 better state of pulverization, or what might be called 

 aerated condition, than when in the course of cropping 

 for a few years it has passed away. Stable manure best 

 supplies this want ; but on farm lands away from towns, 

 it is not often that enough can be obtained to have any 

 appreciable effect on the soil, and hence artificial fertiliz- 

 ers are resorted to, which often fail, not from any fault 

 in themselves, but from the fact that, exerting little me- 

 chanical influence on the land, it becomes compacted or 

 sodden, the air cannot get to the roots, and hence failure 

 or partial failure of crop. Thus we see that to have the 

 best results from commercial fertilizers it is of great im- 

 portance to have the land rested by a crcp of grain or 

 grass every three or four years. 



The best known fertilizers of commerce are Peruvian 

 guano and bone dust, though there are numbers of oth- 

 ers, such as fish guano, dry blood fertilizer, blood and 

 bone fertilizer, with the various brands of superphos- 

 phates, all of more or less value for fertilizing purposes. 

 It is useless to go over the list, and we will confine our- 

 selves to the relative merits of pure Peruvian guano and 

 pure bone dust. Guano at $65 per ton we consider rela- 

 tively equal in value to bone dust at $40 per ton, for in the 

 lower priced article we find that we have to increase the 

 quantity to produce the same result. Whatever kind of 

 concentrated fertilizer is used, we find it well repays the 

 labor to prepare it in the following manner before it is 

 used on the land : 



To every bushel of guano or bone dust add three bush- 

 els of either leaf mold from the woods, well pulverized 

 dry muck, sweepings from a paved street, stable manure 

 so rotted as to be like pulverized muck, or, if neither of 



