A LIQUID MANURE LADLE. 



31 



do not use dung for tlie Peas we must use artificials : we can get 

 dung for nothing, but artificials we should have to buy : how now, 

 Sir Critic V The answer is easy. Even if dung may be got without 

 purchase, it is still wasteful to use it when a better purpose can be 

 found for it, and, as to artificials, they are no more a necessity than 

 dung. The great want of the Pea plant is moisture. If a man with 

 unlimited dung to work into his ground were to apply it in the top 

 spit, without trenching, and a very dry spring and summer were to 

 follow, he would have no guarantee whatever of a good crop. The 

 probability is that it would be a very poor one. If another man 

 used no dung all, but trenched his ground, and when early 

 summer came soaked his trenches and mulched his plants with loose 

 soil, he would most likely have a very good crop. The man who can 

 keep his Peas growing when dry weather comes is the man whose 



plants ward off thrips, red spider, and mildew. No solids will keep 

 them growing, but liquids will. A Pea plant that has moisture can 

 afford to laugh at manure. The successful Pea grower's routine 

 generally comprises three things— trenches or trenching, dung, liquid 

 manure. When he succeeds, he almost invariably, by some 

 mysterious process of reasoning, works it out that dung has done 

 the work. In reality, it is the other two. I have proved, by 

 repeated and careful experiments, that the finest of both garden and 

 Sweet Peas may be grown by the following simple plan : First 

 trench the ground, doing this in autumn ; in February line out the 

 rows where the Peas are to come, and take out 9 inches of soil, laying 

 it along the side of the trench ; sprinkle along the bottom of the 

 trench superphosphate at the rate of one handful to the yard. 

 Leave the super to become precipitated, and the soil on the edge of 

 the trench to sweeten for about three weeks ; then put back half the 

 soil, sow the seeds on it, and cover them not less than 2 inches deep. 

 Leave the remainder of the soil where it is until a spell of dry 



FIG. 11. -A LIQUID 

 MANURE LADLE. 



This handy little 

 dipper is useful 

 for ladling liquid 

 manure out of 

 buckets or tubs. It 

 is made of an old 

 tin, fitted with a 

 handle in the form 

 of a piece of stick. 



