MANURES AND MANURING 33 



condition will ever give satisfactory results. Upon 

 the other hand stable manure rarely contains a bal- 

 anced ration so far as plant food is concerned. 

 Nitrogen is usually in excess of potash and phos- 

 phorus, the latter being especially liable to be want- 

 ing in proper amounts. Splendid results are se- 

 cured by supplementing the stable manure with 

 liberal applications of potash and phosphorus. As 

 a matter of fact, it has come to be a rather common 

 practice,where one has control of the manure supply, 

 to use liberal quantities of phosphate in the stables 

 for the purpose of preventing loss of nitrogen and 

 at the same time increasing the percentage of this 

 element available. In the very sandy types of soils 

 commercial fertilizers seem to give more striking 

 results than in the heavier types, and as the gar- 

 dener uses much larger quantities of manure than 

 the general farmer uses, or could possibly use ad- 

 vantageously, just so we find him using much 

 larger quantities of commercial fertilizers. From 

 500 to 2,000 pounds per acre of high-grade fertilizer 

 is not an uncommon application, and perhaps from 

 800 to 1000 pounds would be about an average 

 amount. Commercial fertilizers should usually be 

 applied after the ground has been plowed and par- 

 tially worked down. The later workings with the 

 finer-toothed instruments thoroughly incorporates 

 and distributes the materials throughout the soil. 

 Where more than one crop is grown during the sea- 

 son it is more economical to apply from 300 to 500 

 pounds of fertilizer to each crop, rather than to 

 apply the entire amount to the first crop. Possible 

 waste by leaching is thus avoided and better results 

 with all crops secured. Of the three elements com- 

 monly applied in the form of commercial fertilizers. 



