THE HANDLING OF THE LAND 113 
If one has only a small garden or a home yard, it ordinarily 
will not pay him to buy the chemicals separately, as sug- 
gested above, but he may purchase a complete fertilizer that 
is sold under a trademark or brand, and has a guaranteed 
analysis. If one is raising plants chiefly for their foliage, as 
rhubarb and ornamental bushes, he should choose a fertilizer 
comparatively rich in nitrogen; but if he desires chiefly fruit 
and flowers, the mineral elements, as potash and phosphoric 
acid, should usually be high. If one uses the chemicals, it is 
not necessary that they be mixed before application; in fact, 
it is usually better not to mix them, because some plants and 
some soils need more of one element than. of another. Just 
what materials, and how much, different soils and plants re- 
quire must be determined by the grower himself by obser- 
vation and experiment; and it is one of the satisfactions of 
gardening to arrive at discrimination in such matters. 
Muriate of potash costs $40 and upwards per ton, sulfate 
about $48, dissolved boneblack about $24, ground bone about 
$30, kainit about $13, and nitrate of soda about 214 cents per 
pound. These prices vary, of course, with the composition or 
mechanical condition of materials, and with the state of the 
market. The average composition of unleached wood ashes 
in the market is about as follows: Potash, 5.2 per cent; phos- 
phoric acid, 1.70 per cent; lime, 34 per cent; magnesia, 3.40 
per cent. The average composition of kainit is 13.54 per 
cent potash, 1.15 per cent lime. 
The fact that the soil itself is the greatest storehouse of plant- 
food is shown by the following average of thirty-five analyses 
of the total content of the first eight inches of surface soils, 
per acre: 3521 pounds of nitrogen, 4400 pounds of phosphoric 
acid, 19,836 pounds of potash. Much of this is unavailable, 
but good tillage, green-manuring, and proper management 
tend to unlock it and at the same time to save it from waste. 
Every careful gardener will take satisfaction in saving leaves 
I 
