SITUATION AND SOIL 
57 
year. As to quantity, roughly speaking a cord of this manure 
will be required for a field seventy-five feet square. Liveiy- 
stable manure is of much less value, owing to the fact that 
it contains a large proportion of straw. This very objection, 
however, works to the advantage of land wherever a too 
compact soil needs to be lightened. A clay soil, for example, 
calls for some sort of filling to make it porous. Wood ashes, 
for the sake of the potash it contains, is very valuable. Twenty 
cents is not an unusual price for a bushel, so that every hand- 
ful should be saved. Coal ashes contains, of course, no plant 
food, but it is in some cases used to improve the texture of 
soil. Pigeon and hen guano make desirable fertilizers where 
a highly concentrated form is wanted. Some give these 
highest praise. Applying fertilizers should always be done 
cautiously. Of many a once-promising grassplot it can all 
too truly be said, "A burnt lawn dreads the fertilizer.” This 
is especially true of prepared dressings, for they are highly 
concentrated. Therefore never allow a particle to touch 
any part of a seed or plant. Guano is said to be the one 
exception. 
In cities, street sweepings play an important part in enrich- 
ing land. They may nearly always be delivered by the street 
department for the asking. The farmer did not exaggerate 
when he said : ” I saw a man dumping a load of street sweep- 
ings into a vacant lot. It would have been less wasteful to 
have dumped a bushel of potatoes into the hole.” 
Manure and artificial fertilizers are both expensive ways 
of restoring the food elements to the soil. This accounts 
for the starved condition of many a worn-out farm whose 
owner believed he was too poor , to properly feed his land. 
But while he has seemingly been getting something for 
nothing, his farm has been steadily running down. This is 
called skimming the land. 
