A FIXE BEETROOT. 



33 



FIG. 12. -THIS FINE 

 BEETROOT WAS 

 PRODUCED BY 

 TRENCHING, NOT 

 BY DUNGING. 



potting shed, be suitable for applying ^Yhen the 

 drills are drawn. In any state, however, I 

 believe that manure for Potatoes is best 

 trenched in. Artificial manures yield crops 

 of fine quantity and quality when the ground 

 is thoroughly cultivated, and so well have I 

 been satisfied with the result of applying care- 

 fully blended mixtures, and so convenient are 

 these where yard manure of the right Cjuality 

 is difficult to get, that I have had no hesitation 

 in trusting to them absolutely. I could name 

 several mixtures that have given admirable 

 yields of produce, but the following are perhaps 

 the pick : — 



Xo. 1. 



Si parts of superphosphate of lime 



2 kainit 



li sulphate of ammonia 



Xo. 2. 



3 parts of superphosphate 

 Ih „ sulphate of potash 

 14 „ nitrate of soda 



1 ,, steamed bone flour 



In each case they should be well mixed and 

 applied at the rate of 7 lb. to 10 lb. per square 

 rod (30t square yards), preferably in winter, 

 but I have applied them in the drills at 

 planting time with satisfactory results, and 

 this is a very convenient plan. I have more 

 than once been told, in each case by gentlemen 

 who grow all their Potatoes in the study, with 

 a pen for a spade, and an inkpot for a trench, 

 that the quantities recommended are too great, 

 and that 3 lb. per square rod will give equally 

 good results. In inkpots it may do ; in the 

 garden it does not. There are two main reasons 

 why people fail with artificials— the first and 

 greatest is that owing. to the facility with which 

 these fertilisers can be got into the ground, 

 the soil is only half cultivated ; the second is 

 that not half enough is used. To succeed, the 

 same good spade-work must be brought into 

 play that yields success when dung is the 

 manurial factor, and fair quantities must be 

 used. One point more : We are often advised 

 to use our phosphatic and potassic fertilisers 

 in winter, and our nitrogenous ones at the 

 time of the first earthing. I leaned to the plan 



