Canned Garden Food 
VEN though you may have been suc¬ 
cessful in getting a good supply of 
manure for the garden, or in arranging 
for its delivery later when you are ready 
to have the garden plowed or spaded, you 
will probably have use for some commer¬ 
cial fertilizer. Now is the time to get it. 
The amount will depend largely upon how 
much manure you now have at your dis¬ 
posal. From one to one and a half 
pounds for every twenty-five square feet 
will make a generous dressing where lit¬ 
tle or no manure is used. With a good 
coating of manure, one-half, or even less, 
of this amount will be enough to produce 
good results. This would make for a gar¬ 
den 50 x 100 feet an application of 100 to 
200 lbs. of high-grade fertilizer, according 
to the amount of manure being used with 
it. The best fertilizer for garden use 
should contain approximately 4% of ni¬ 
trogen, 8% of available phosphoric acid, 
and 10% of potash. 
In addition to the general dressing of 
fertilizer, before planting you should have 
some other things to put on at the time 
of planting and to use as top dressing. 
For this purpose get from 25 to 100 lbs. 
each of fine ground bone and nitrate of 
soda and also of tankage or cotton-seed 
meal. As potash is very scarce this year, 
it will be difficult to get ready-mixed fer¬ 
tilizers containing a high percentage of 
potash. Therefore, you should not only 
carefully save any of your own wood 
ashes, but purchase them wherever you 
can at a fair price, provided they have 
been kept dry. Ashes from hardwood are 
more valuable than those from soft wood. 
The home mixing of fertilizers is being 
done more and more. At first only large 
commercial growers, who used many tons 
of fertilizers annually, took it up. Rut 
now the raw materials or ingredients can 
Additional warmth can be secured by covering the 
frames with heavy pads 
be purchased in many localities from local 
dealers in small amounts, and there is no 
reason why the home gardener who uses 
several hundred pounds of fertilizer 
during the year should not mix up his own 
fertilizer to meet his own requirements. 
It is certain that he can get much more 
for his money by so doing. All the tools 
that are required for the job are a square- 
pointed shovel, a screen and a tight floor 
or large shallow box. You can readily 
duplicate the formula of any mixed brand 
you may have been using. But most of 
the ready-mixed brands are low in nitro¬ 
gen and potash in proportion to the 
amount of phosphoric acid they contain. 
A mixture of — 
30 lbs. nitrate of soda; 
40 of muriate or sulphate of potash; 
50 of high-grade tankage, and 
70 of 16% acid phosphate 
will contain the plant-food elements in 
about the right proportions. 
Spread the several ingredients out in a 
low, flat heap, the bulkier ones at the 
bottom, and shovel or hoe them over two 
or three times until they are thoroughly 
mixed. Then put them through the sieve, 
mix them again and remove any lumps; 
these may be pounded up with the bottom 
of the spade and added to the rest of the 
mixture afterwards. 
Enough of this general mixture or basic 
formula should be made to give the gar¬ 
den one good dressing before planting is 
begun. One of the great advantages of 
mixing your own fertilizer is that during 
the course of the summer it is often de¬ 
sirable to use one or more of the dif¬ 
ferent ingredients by itself as a top dress¬ 
ing; nitrate of soda is used for this pur¬ 
pose, as it contains nitrogen, which, in 
an available form, is capable of quickly 
stimulating any crop that may fail to 
show that dark-green color, indicating a 
lack of nitrogen. An application of ni¬ 
trate of soda followed by rain or a good 
watering will frequently show perceptible 
results in a few hours. A convenient way 
of handling the mixture is to get a few 
empty cracker boxes in which the ma¬ 
terial can be kept until you are ready to 
use it. 
An Early Start for Late Beginners 
The gardener who has to contend with 
the disadvantages of a new place, or who 
has not for some reason put in a cold 
frame or a hot bed in the fall, and who. 
nevertheless, wants to start plants early 
for this year's garden, is not at a hopeless 
disadvantage. A hotbed may be con¬ 
structed on top of the ground. In order 
to do this, more manure in proportion to 
the size of the frame must be used, but 
this is better than no hotbed at all. A 
cord of manure, costing three to five dol¬ 
lars, will make a bed for a sash frame 
holding three regular 3x6 sashes. In 
this amount of space enough things may 
be started for a substantial family garden. 
And after you get through with the beds, 
the manure will be in the right condition 
for hills of melons, beans, tomatoes, 
squash, and so forth, or to use for late 
celery or cabbage. The manure should, of 
course, be horse manure, fresh enough to 
heat properly when it is stacked in a com¬ 
pact heap to ferment. A third or so in 
bulk of short bedding or leaves should be 
added to it unless it already contains suffi¬ 
cient stable litter. This should be packed 
thoroughly, trampling down each layer, 
and kept under cover, and after a few 
days turned inside out and allowed to 
heat again. When it is hot through and 
through, spread it out in a flat heap about 
9 feet wide and 18 inches deep and 18 
inches longer on either end than the frame 
which is to be set upon it. This pile is 
made level in a sheltered position, getting 
the full sun, but protected from north 
winds. About 6 inches of soil is put on 
top of the manure inside of the frame; 
the outside of it is banked up with ma¬ 
nure. For the first few days after it is 
made, the temperature will be very hot, 
and even if only frozen dirt is available it 
will thaw out very quickly with the joint 
action of the manure and the sun through 
the glass sash, especially if matting shut¬ 
ters are kept on during cold nights. 
There will be plenty to keep one busy 
in the greenhouse at this time of the year. 
A new supply of flats, if one has not 
Over the pads put a wooden cover, and the frame 
will be well protected 
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