DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 
•5 
Fertilizers and Manures. 
There are so many kinds of manures, and such a variety of 
modes of applying them, that it would be useless to attempt a 
description of them here. To those who are in want of infor- 
mation on this subject, we would recommend Browne's "Amer- 
ican Muck Book," in which is described every kind of availa- 
ble fertilizer, with minute directions for its application. 
As a general practice, stable or barnyard dung, sufficiently 
rotted to destroy the vitality of the seeds of weeds and other 
foul plants contained in it, well incorporated in the soil, per- 
haps, is the best manure that can be applied to a garden. A 
compost made of a mixture of the dung of various kinds of 
animals, and the refuse or decaying parts of garden vegetables, 
or the leaves of trees, doubtless, is the most appropriate ma- 
nure that can be applied. In cases where these manures can- 
not be obtained, guano, poudrctte, bonedust, superphosphate 
of lime, charcoal, plaster, oyster-shell lime, common salt, and 
dressings of soot, wood ashes, soapsuds, or other liquid ma- 
nures, may be used with advantage instead. All of -these, 
however, should be cautiously employed, as a misapplication 
would often be followed with injurious results. 
Selection and Application of Seeds. 
In selecting seeds, the first thing to be attended to is to 
choose the best to be had, and, if possible, obtain them from a 
responsible seedsman. Never buy those which are "cheap" 
because they cost less, for they will prove the "dearest" in 
the end. 
In order to test the vitality of seeds, sow a few in a pot or 
box of earth, and keep it warm and moist, exposed to the sun 
for a while, and, if good, they will begin to sprout and grow 
Onion seed, soaked a few minutes in cold water, and then 
boiled for half an hour in hot water, will begin to germinate if 
vitality remains. 
Indian corn, pens, and numerous other seeds, soaked four 
hours in a tepid solution of chloride of lime and water, mixed 
in the proportion of one fourth of an ounce of the lime to a 
gallon of water, and then sown in the ordinary way, have been 
known to throw out germs in twenty-four hours. 
