SITUATION AND SOIL 57 



year. As to quantity, roughly speaking a cord of this manure 

 will be required for a field seventy-five feet square. Livery- 

 stable manure is of much less value, owing to the fact that 

 it contains a large proportion of straw. This very objection, 

 however, works to the advantage of land wherever a too 

 compact soil needs to be lightened. A clay soil, for example, 

 calls for some sort of filling to make it porous. Wood ashes, 

 for the sake of the potash it contains, is very valuable. Twenty 

 cents is not an unusual price for a bushel, so that every hand- 

 ful should be saved. Coal ashes contains, of course, no plant 

 food, but it is in some cases used to improve the texture of 

 soil. Pigeon and hen guano make desirable fertilizers where 

 a highly concentrated form is wanted. Some give these 

 highest praise. Applying fertilizers should always be done 

 cautiously. Of many a once-promising grassplot it can all 

 too truly be said, "A burnt lawn dreads the fertilizer." This 

 is especially true of prepared dressings, for they are highly 

 concentrated. Therefore never allow a particle to touch 

 any part of a seed or plant. Guano is said to be the one 

 exception. 



In cities, street sweepings play an important part in enrich- 

 ing land. They may nearly always be delivered by the street 

 department for the asking. The farmer did not exaggerate 

 when he said : "I saw a man dumping a load of street sweep- 

 ings into a vacant lot. It would have been less wasteful to 

 have dumped a bushel of potatoes into the hole." 



Manure and artificial fertilizers are both expensive ways 

 of restoring the food elements to the soil. This accounts 

 for the starved condition of many a worn-out farm whose 

 owner believed he was too poor to properly feed his land. 

 But while he has seemingly been getting something for 

 nothing, his farm has been steadily running down. This is 

 called skimming the land. 



