SPECIAL FERTILIZERS FOR PARTICULAR PLANTS. 21 



CHAPTEE VII. 



SPECIAL FERTILIZERS FOR PARTICULAR PLANTS. 



A man called at my office a few years ago with some 

 dozen bottles as samples of special manures, indispensa- 

 ble, he said, as fertilizers for certain kinds of plants. 

 He had those with him that he claimed to be specially 

 prepared for cabbage, corn, potatoes, wheat, grass, lawns, 

 beets, etc., etc. He even invaded Flora's realm, and de- 

 clared that his nostrum for roses was a specific for any 

 languid capers of this sometimes rather coquettish queen 

 of flowers. His own arguments, which were rather 

 plausible and glibly uttered, were backed up by numer- 

 ous certificates — authentic, I have no doubt — where his 

 u potato fertilizer " had worked wonders with some, 

 with others his " corn manure " had been of undoubted 

 benefit, and so on all through the list. 



Now, I have no reason to say that the vender of these 

 fertilizers was a quack, except the broad fact, gathered 

 from an experience of thirty years, that has shown me 

 that it makes but little difference with what fertilizer a 

 crop is treated, provided the soil is properly pulverized 

 and the fertilizer applied in proper proportions according 

 to its strength. Had all his separate kinds of fertilizers 

 been taken from the same bag, (provided that bag con- 

 tained a good article of bone-dust or guano), the result 

 to his patrons would have been the same, whether he 

 had used it on one or all of the crops that he had special 

 prescriptions for. 



There are few market gardeners in the vicinity of New 

 York but who have at one time or another been obliged 

 to take anything they could get for fertilizing purposes, 

 and the difference has never been perceptible when ma- 

 nure from horse stables or cow stables has been applied, 



