FERTILIZING AND FERTILIZERS 



eat the tops or leafy portions; potash builds up and 

 strengthens wood and fruit, while phosphoric acid 

 seems to be the food which flowering plants, whether 

 shrubby or herbaceous, most appreciate. 



Learn to watch your garden and find out from 

 the plants and the w^ay they grow just what it is that 

 they need. Do not, for instance, give nitrogen when 

 top growth is rank and luxuriant, but fruit of poor 

 quality and not abundant, for such a condition 

 probably means that trees are star\ing for potash. 

 Of course all the elements should be present in order 

 to get the best results — but frequently it is necessary 

 to supply only one in order to make the proportions 

 right, as already suggested. The trick is to find out 

 which one. 



It is largely a matter of common sense, once you 

 know what is what — and without knowing this no 

 amount of directions will be any real help. It is 

 necessary to reahze what is going on down in the 

 ground where the roots are doing their work — how 

 they are gathering up one substance and another in the 

 tiniest and most minute particles — in order to realize 

 that a very Kttle too much of one thing or a very little 

 deficiency of the other may actually work ill to a plant 

 — may surfeit or starve it. 



Finally, there is one other thing about the soil 

 that should here be mentioned, partly for the reason 

 that it is so generally overlooked in all that is said or 

 written about soil, good or bad, and partly because it 

 is interesting. It is a phase of soil fertihty that does 



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