American Agriculturist 
FARM—DAIRY—MARKET—GARDEN—HOME 
‘‘Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man ”—Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
Volume 111 For the Week Ending March 3, 1923 Number 9 
Making Gardens Yield Their Limit 
Definite Suggestions For Bringing Down the Farmers Qost of Living 
C hickens are kept on your farm, of 
course. Are you right up-to-date in 
, feeding them? Our little flock gives 
us wholesome work and also eggs 
for the family. And it has occurred to me 
that those busy-bee hens are not unlike the 
garden vegetables in their feeding habits. In 
the first place, the hens must have some lit¬ 
ter—clean, sanitary and of the right texture, 
in order to induce vigouous scratching and 
proper exercise. So must the roots of plants 
have a satisfactory medium—^the soil, 
which must be sanitary and of the right 
texture and moisture content. 
Again, these persnickity hens insist on 
a ration almost equal in variety to a banquet 
served in New York’s swellest restaurant. 
Give them corn and any one or two other 
articles of food and they will rebel and not 
lay an egg until springtime comes and they 
get good and ready. So it is with vege¬ 
tables. Give them nitrogen only and they 
will all go to leaves, or feed them with the 
mineral elements only and the yields will 
be disappointingly small. The hens demand 
a dry mash with a mixture of egg produc¬ 
ing materials and a grain mixture of corn, 
wheat, oats, buckwheat or other grains in 
variety. And the farm garden must not 
be lacking in any element of plant food, if 
all the vegetables are to thrive. 
^ Inasmuch as a great many different 
kinds of vegetables are grown in the farm 
garden, fertility conditions suitable to all of 
them must be maintained. If we were to 
grow only one crop, such as, tomatoes or 
celery, the problem of supplying the needs 
would be simplified. Tomatoes, for example, 
do not require as high fertility as celery, and 
each garden crop has its own special require¬ 
ments, to some extent at least. Because of 
this difficult situation it is necessary to sup¬ 
ply plant food and organic matter in suffici¬ 
ent quantity to meet the needs of all the crops 
to be grown, in order that no 
one vegetable will suffer, and 
at the same time, not to add 
anything in such forms and 
amounts as will be disas¬ 
trous to any crop. 
Thousands of farmers, 
anxious to maintain the 
highest ferility in the farm 
garden, apply enormous 
amounts of stable manure to 
the garden annually and 
when any of the crops fail, 
they wonder what the trouble 
is. And a fairly large per¬ 
centage of gardens treated 
in this lavish manner do fail 
sooner or later. It is like 
feeding the hens all corn. 
Well preserved manure is 
rich in nitrogen, but does 
hot contain enough phos¬ 
phorus to meet the full re¬ 
quirements of most, if not all 
of the vegetables, and it may 
be short in potash, under 
certain conditions. A few 
By R. L. WATTS 
years ago I visited a market gardner who 
was grieving over a small crop of cabbage 
on a heavily manured plot. The outside 
leaves were very large, but the cabbage heads 
Were very small. No mineral fertilizer had 
been applied. 
But let us remember that a large amount 
of humus in any garden soil is absolutely es- 
The long list of products from a good garden keep 
down the cost of living and add much to the health 
and happiness of the farm home 
sential. Without a liberal amount of organic 
matter the soil becomes hard, compact, life¬ 
less and unproductive. It is all right to use 
plenty of manure every year, but it is all 
wrong to rely wholly upon manure. 
How much manure to the acre? That de¬ 
pends. Some heavy clay soils need more 
than the naturally friable, sandy loams. 
Peter Henderson, the veteran, pioneer Ameri¬ 
can gardener, often used 75 tons to the acre. 
Very few gardeners of to-day can find or 
afford to apply more than half this amount, 
and if they can use twenty tons to the acre, 
they are indeed fortunate, except in the most 
intensive operations. If the farm garden 
receives an annual application of 25 tons of 
manure to the acre, the supply of organic 
matter should be adequately maintained. 
Fresh stable manures are injurious to some 
garden crops, especially to the root crops, 
such as beets and carrots. They tend to 
produce foliage instead of the desired edible 
parts of the plants. For this reason, mar¬ 
ket gardeners generally compost the manure 
and there is no reason why every farmer 
should not treat the manure in this man¬ 
ner for the home garden. The usual plan 
is to tramp the manure in large flat piles 
with rectangular sides. It is an advantage 
to water with a hose occasionally to hasten 
decay and to prevent firefanging. 
If composted in a moist condition for at 
least six months, all the weed seeds will be 
destroyed and this in itself is a strong argu¬ 
ment for composting. Though the coarser 
partly decayed manure should be applied 
before the garden is plowed, the best re¬ 
sults are obtained by applying well decayed 
manure after the garden has been plowed 
and then use a disk harrow to thoroughly 
mix it with the soil. In small gardens 
which are spaded, the manure should be ap¬ 
plied before the ground is spaded. 
Poultry droppings, because of their fine 
texture and high fertilizing value, are es¬ 
pecially desirable for use in the garden. 
They should be spread lightly, after the 
ground has been spaded or plowed, and then 
harrowed or raked into the soil. Their value 
will be enhanced if acid phosphate is 
sprinkled on the droppings as they are col¬ 
lected from day to day. 
Gardeners are appreciating more than 
ever before the necessity of 
keeping the vegetable plats 
well limed. Fifty bushels 
of burnt lime to the acre, ap¬ 
plied every four or five 
years, will maintain an alka¬ 
line condition in the soil and 
make it easier to cultivate. 
The lime should not be ap¬ 
plied with the manure, if 
this can be avoided. 
I doubt whether any farm 
gardener can afford to do 
without commercial fertilizer 
of any kind. Practical ex¬ 
perience and numerous in¬ 
vestigations show that ap¬ 
plications of acid phosphate 
nearly always give increased 
yield and larger profits. 
Most soils are lacking in 
this plant food and, as pre¬ 
viously stated, stable ma¬ 
nures do not contain it in 
adequate amounts. It is 
probable that most farm 
(jContinued on v<^g6 187) 
A hot bed can be easily constructed at little expense and it will greatly extend the 
season and results from the home garden 
pi M 
