SOME HINTS ON THE MANURING OF GARDEN CROPS. 355 
the dressing is to be given in the winter or spring. Broadly speaking, 
the lasting manures should be given in the winter and the quick- 
acting manures in the spring. 
The chief consideration is whether the object is to raise the general 
fertility of your soil, as in the case of a fruit plantation, when winter 
manures will be given, or whether it is required to hurry on a par- 
ticular crop, in which case a quick-acting spring dressing will best 
do the work. Such a case is the application of a soluble potash 
salt to potatos, nitrate of soda to cabbages and green stuff generally, 
soluble phosphates to tomatos, and the spring manuring of small 
fruit (especially black currants) to encourage the setting, holding, 
and swelling of the fruit, and, by keeping up the flow of sap and 
vigour generally, protecting them from damage by cold winds and 
frost. 
It may be well to say that the idea that winter manures are 
largely wasted by being washed out of the soil is, roughly speaking, 
erroneous, if at least the right manures are used and properly applied. 
These organic slow-acting manures are not soluble until they are 
acted on by bacteria, and the bacteria are practically dormant in 
the winter, and only reach the height of their activity when the 
plant is also actively feeding. Therefore unless the manures are 
mechanically washed away, which can hardly happen if they are 
properly buried, the winter rains have little effect on them beyond 
a certain amount of disintegration, which is desirable. 
Residues from Manures. 
There is one other point in connexion with manuring which a 
grower will be well advised to consider, and that is the residues 
that are left behind from manures after the crop to which they have 
been employed has been harvested. 
It is obvious that where there is perennial growth, as in the case 
of a fruit plantation, we want constantly to maintain a suitable 
well-balanced food. The growth and behaviour of the trees must 
therefore be carefully watched, and any tendency to excessive leaf 
production must be checked, by an increase of phosphates in the next 
dressing, &c. 
In open land the important point is that the residue should suit 
the following crop, or be corrected to do so. A good illustration of 
how this is done by practical growers is the custom of applying a 
dressing of bones in some form to peas after cabbage. Peas require 
phosphates to build up their seed, and if these phosphates were not 
provided, the residues of the heavy nitrogenous dressings given to 
the previous cabbage crop would tend to produce too much haulm. 
It may be well to mention here that many mineral manures, for 
instance superphosphate and sulphate of ammonia, leave behind an 
acid residue in the soil which should be counteracted by an appli- 
cation of lime. On the other hand, the residues of all the recognized 
