FERTILIZERS 27 



should be applied three to six months before plant- 

 ing time. A desirable fertilizer and crop rotation 

 scheme for celery land in the northern states 

 would be to begin by applying 20 to 30 tons of 

 barnyard manure an acre in the spring, plant to 

 corn during the summer, as soon as the corn is 

 harvested sow the land with rye, without plowing, 

 at the same time applying 2,000 pounds fresh lime 

 or 1,000 pounds ground bone to the acre. The rye 

 is intended merely to serve as a cover crop during 

 the winter and should be plowed under before it 

 makes any appreciable growth in the spring. While 

 fitting the land in the spring, apply 1,000 pounds of 

 high-grade fertilizer broadcast or by means of a 

 fertilizer distributer or grain drill, and later an 

 additional 1,000 pounds can be worked into the 

 celery rows before the plants are set. Also apply 

 300 to 600 pounds of nitrate of soda in two or three 

 top dressings during the growing season, the first 

 being applied four or five weeks after planting. 

 The following three years the celery will occupy 

 the land until quite late in the autumn and the 

 plowing can not be done until early spring. As soon 

 as the land is in shape to work, plow and then 

 apply i ,000 pounds of finely ground bone, and later 

 apply the high-grade fertilizers as before. Repeat 

 every fourth year with corn preceded by a heavy 

 dressing of manure to maintain the humus in the 

 soil. On muck lands the manuring will not be nec- 

 essary oftener than every six or eight years, but on 

 sandy loams and glade lands the process should be 

 repeated every fourth year, and a limited amount 



