56 
GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 
some out-of-the-way corner of the park. On the whole, it 
may be said that the more substantial the filling the better 
the crops, since some roots strike deep. The course that has 
just been suggested is the one most commonly followed in 
dealing with the " made land ” in cities, where the ground 
consists mostly of gravel, ashes, and tin cans. A girl from 
the Winthrop School writes naively, " When we were dig- 
ging we found many curious things. There were stones, 
worms, broken glass, and bricks.” 
The question of enrichment — what and how much — will 
nowadays accept nothing short of a scientific answer. A 
thorough knowledge of what substances to use, and how to 
use them, is to-day a necessary part of a farmer’s equipment. 
He must at all costs keep up with the new methods that are 
being introduced every year. Sometimes our young gardeners 
will begin by verifying some of the commonly accepted rules 
about fertilizers ; then they will be enticed to work out experi- 
ments wholly their own. Practical knowledge is gained by 
wgitching the effects of different sorts of fertilizers on selected 
plants arranged in separate boxes. Among the commonest 
samples are to be found such stand-bys as nitrate of soda, acid 
phosphate, muriate of potash, and some forms of ” complete 
fertilizer,” as it is called, not omitting samples of barnyard 
manure. Other samples then can be tried whose effects are 
less familiar. 
There are all sorts of clever ways of applying fertilizers. 
What gardeners call a ” quick start,” for instance, is secured 
by making a somewhat deeper furrow than usual, scattering 
in some fertilizer, then sprinkling on top a light layer of earth 
before sowing the seed. But it must be emphasized that by 
far the most effective, as well as the most commonly used all- 
round fertilizer, is well-rotted barnyard manure. "Well-rotted ” 
means that decomposition has been going on for at least a 
