1134 



THE BOOK OF GARDENING. 



An important lesson, therefore, to be learned by the gardener 

 at the present time is how to use artificial fertilisers to the best 

 possible advantage in conjunction with dung ; or, rather, how to 

 supplement and eke out the dung of animals, by means of 

 artificial fertilisers, in such wise that the utmost success shall be 

 got both from the dung and from the chemical ingredients. 



There are special cases, necessarily, where it may be best on 

 the whole to use farmyard manure alone, or, on the other hand, 

 to use artificial fertilisers by themselves. Furthermore, artificials 

 may be chosen as to yield their full effect immediately, which to 

 the market-gardener is a matter of special importance, whereas 

 dung takes many years to give up all its fertilising properties. 

 Hence it stands to reason that, if a manure is sluggish in its 

 action, it means that the profit by its use is delayed, the capital 

 it represents yielding no interest until it is realised. For example, 

 coarse bones have been sometimes preferred to fine bone-meal 

 merely for the reason that they distribute their effects over a 

 greater number of years. 



A well-chosen artificial fertiliser should act promptly and 

 decisively on the crop or on the particular plant to which it is 

 applied, but it does not follow that its effect is limited to that 

 crop or plant ; some constituents, such as potash, may remain 

 in the soil for a long time if not taken up by the growing 

 plant. 



Artificial manures, properly and abundantly used, do not 

 stimulate plant-life in the sense in which the word is commonly 

 used. Nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid, in whatever form 

 they may be employed, are true plant-foods, and furnish actual 

 nourishment to growing crops. 



It is well known that plants frequently suffer from lack of a 

 full supply of food at a critical period of their growth. When 

 they have used the easily available food stored in the seed, but 

 have not yet had time to produce roots sufficiently numerous to 

 secure a full supply of nourishment from that which is less 

 available in the soil, the addition of an assimilable concentrated 

 fertiliser is of the greatest value. Most soils, even the richest, 

 are so imperfectly adapted for the maximum welfare of plants 

 that, unless a small amount of delicate plant-food be supplied, 

 growth languishes until the plant has extended and multiplied 

 its roots sufficiently to secure a supply of nourishment from 

 the inherent and less available constituents stored up in the 

 soil. 



If, then, some easily assimilable food is at hand to make 

 good the soil's deficiencies, and to sustain the plant and keep 

 it in complete vigour during the whole period of its life, it is 

 reasonable to suppose that a larger crop will be secured than 

 would have been obtained if no additional nutriment had been 

 provided. 



