Fertilizers 



47 



fact too, a bag of fertilizer may contain twice the 

 available plant food of a ton of well rotted manure ; 

 but out of a hundred practical gardeners ninety-nine 

 — and probably one more — would prefer the manure. 

 There is a reason why — two reasons, even if not one 

 of the hundred gardeners could give them to you. 

 First, natural manures have a decided physical effect 

 upon most soils (altogether aside from the plant 

 food they contain) ; and second, plants seem to have 

 a preference as to the form in which their food ele- 

 ments are served to them. Fertilizers, on the other 

 hand, are valuable only for the plant food they con- 

 tain, and sometimes have a bad effect upon the 

 physical condition of the soil. 



When it comes right down to the practical ques- 

 tion of what to put on your garden patch to grow 

 big crops, nothing has yet been discovered that is 

 better than the old reliable stand-by — well rotted, 

 thoroughly fined stable or barnyard manure. Heed 

 those adjectives ! We have already seen that plant 

 food which is not available might as well be, for our 

 immediate purposes, at the North Pole. The plant 

 food in "green" or fresh manure is not available, 

 and does not become so until it is released by the 

 decay of the organic matters therein. Now the time 

 possible for growing a crop of garden vegetables is 

 limited ; in many instances it is only sixty to ninety 

 days. The plants want their food ready at once; 



