FERTILIZERS AND PLANT REMEDIES 



whose " sensibility " even Jane Austen might 

 have admired, I asked her honest opinion 

 upon the subject, and was told in reply that 

 in her experience, also, all success in garden- 

 ing depended upon the preparation and fer- 

 tilization of the soil, and that without man- 

 ures nothing could be done; she further told 

 me that in answer to her husband's inquiry 

 one day, what he should give her for a birth- 

 day present, she had answered, " Two car- 

 loads of manure for the garden." 



After the animal manures, decomposed 

 vegetable matter, which the expert now 

 refers to as humus, is the most valuable con- 

 stituent of the soil. This material is within 

 the reach of every one who has even a small 

 place. By gathering and saving carefully all 

 the autumn leaves, turning them several 

 times during the year until they are decom- 

 posed, you will have them in condition to 

 return to the soil in the form of humus or 

 leaf-mold, and give to the plants the nitro- 

 gen so necessary to their growth. 



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