Home Vegetable Gardening, F. F. Rockwell [popular novels .txt] 📗

manure, treading the whole

down firmly. Fermentation and decomposition will be quickly started.

The heap should occasionally be forked over and restacked. Light

dressings of lime, mixed in at such times, will aid thorough

decomposition.

 

Wood ashes form another valuable manure which should be carefully

saved. Beside the plant food contained, they have a most excellent

effect upon the mechanical condition of almost every soil. Ashes should

not be put in the compost heap, because there are special uses for

them, such as dusting on squash or melon vines, or using on the onion

bed, which makes it desirable to keep them separate. Wood ashes may

frequently be bought for fifty cents a barrel, and at this price a few

barrels for the home garden will be a good investment.

 

Coal ashes contain practically no available plant food, but are well

worth saving to use on stiff soils, for paths, etc.

 

VALUE OF GREEN MANURING

 

Another source of organic manures, altogether too little appreciated,

is what is termed “green manuring”—the plowing under of growing crops

to enrich the land. Even in the home garden this system should be taken

advantage of whenever possible. In farm practice, clover is the most

valuable crop to use for this purpose, but on account of the length of

time necessary to grow it, it is useful for the vegetable garden only

when there is sufficient room to have clover growing on, say, one half-acre plot, while the garden occupies, for two years, another half-acre;

and then changing the two about. This system will give an ideal garden

soil, especially where it is necessary to rely for the most part upon

chemical fertilizers.

 

There are, however, four crops valuable for green-manuring the garden,

even where the same spot must be occupied year after year: rye, field

corn, field peas (or cow peas in the south) and crimson clover. After

the first of September, sow every foot of garden ground cleared of its

last crop, with winter rye. Sow all ground cleared during August with

crimson clover and buckwheat, and mulch the clover with rough manure

after the buckwheat dies down. Sow field peas or corn on any spots that

would otherwise remain unoccupied six weeks or more. All these are sown

broadcast, on a freshly raked surface. Such a system will save a very

large amount of plant food which otherwise would be lost, will convert

unavailable plant food into available forms while you wait for the next

crop, and add humus to the soil—concerning the importance of

which see Chapter VII.

 

CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS

 

I am half tempted to omit entirely any discussion of chemical

fertilizers: to give a list of them, tell how to apply them, and let

the why and wherefore go. It is, however, such an important subject,

and the home gardener will so frequently have to rely almost entirely

upon their use, that probably it will be best to explain the subject as

thoroughly as I can do it in very limited space. I shall try to give

the theory of scientific chemical manuring in one paragraph.

 

We have already seen that the soil contains within itself some

available plant food. We can determine by chemical analysis the exact

amounts of the various plant foods—nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash,

etc.—which a crop of any vegetable will remove from the soil. The idea

in scientific chemical manuring is to add to the available plant foods

already in the soil just enough more to make the resulting amounts

equal to the quantities of the various elements used by the crop grown.

In other words:

 

)

Available plant food elements in (

the soil, plus > == Amounts of food elements

Available chemical food elements ( in matured crop

supplied in fertilizers )

 

That was the theory—a very pretty and profound one! The discoverers of

it imagined that all agriculture would be revolutionized; all farm and

garden practice reduced to an exact science; all older theories of

husbandry and tillage thrown by the heels together upon the scrap heap

of outworn things. Science was to solve at one fell swoop all the age-old problems of agriculture. And the whole thing was all right in every

way but one—it didn’t work. The unwelcome and obdurate fact remained

that a certain number of pounds of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and

potash—about thirty-three—in a ton of good manure would grow bigger

crops than would the same number of pounds of the same elements in a

bag of chemical fertilizer.

 

Nevertheless this theory, while it failed as the basis of an exact

agricultural science, has been developed into an invaluable guide for

using all manures, and especially concentrated chemical manures. And

the above facts, if I have presented them clearly, will assist the home

gardener in solving the fertilizer problems which he is sure to

encounter.

 

VARIOUS FERTILIZERS

 

What are termed the raw materials from which the universally known

“mixed fertilizers” are made up, are organic or inorganic substances

which contain nitrogen, phosphoric acid or potash in fairly definite

amounts.

 

Some of these can be used to advantage by themselves. Those practical

for use by the home gardener, I mention. The special uses to which they

are adapted will be mentioned in Part Two, under the vegetables for

which they are valuable.

 

GROUND BONE is rich in phosphate and lasts a long time; what is called

“raw bone” is the best “Bone dust” or “bone flour” is finely

pulverized; it will produce quick results, but does not last as long as

the coarser forms.

 

COTTONSEED MEAL is one of the best nitrogenous fertilizers for garden

crops. It is safer than nitrate of soda in the hands of the

inexperienced gardener, and decays very quickly in the soil.

 

PERUVIAN GUANO, in the pure form, is now practically out of the market.

Lower grades, less rich in nitrogen especially, are to be had; and also

“fortified” guano, in which chemicals are added to increase the content

of nitrogen. It is good for quick results.

 

NITRATE OF SODA, when properly handled, frequently produces wonderful

results in the garden, particularly upon quick-growing crops. It is the

richest in nitrogen of any chemical generally used, and a great

stimulant to plant growth. When used alone it is safest to mix with an

equal bulk of light dirt or some other filler. If applied pure, be sure

to observe the following rules or you may burn your plants: (1)

Pulverize all lumps; (2) see that none of it lodges upon the foliage;

(3) never apply when there is moisture upon the plants; (4) apply in

many small doses—say 10 to 20 pounds at a time for 50 x 100 feet of

garden. It should be put on so sparingly as to be barely visible; but

its presence will soon be denoted by the moist spot, looking like a big

rain drop, which each particle of it makes in the dry soil. Nitrate of

soda may also be used safely in solution, at the rate of 1 pound to 12

gallons of water. I describe its use thus at length because I consider

it the most valuable single chemical which the gardener has at command.

 

MURIATE and SULPHATE OF POTASH are also used by themselves as sources

of potash, but as a general thing it will be best to use them in

combination with other chemicals as described under “Home Mixing.”

 

LIME will be of benefit to most soils. It acts largely as an indirect

fertilizer, helping to release other food elements already in the soil,

but in non-available forms. It should be applied once in three to five

years, at the rate of 75 to 100 bushels per acre, after plowing, and

thoroughly harrowed in. Apply as long before planting as possible, or

in the fall.

 

MIXED FERTILIZERS

 

Mixed fertilizers are of innumerable brands, and for sale everywhere.

It is little use to pay attention to the claims made for them. Even

where the analysis is guaranteed, the ordinary gardener has no way of

knowing that the contents of his few bags are what they are labeled.

The best you can do, however, is to buy on the basis of analysis, not

of price per ton—usually the more you pay per bag, the cheaper you are

really buying your actual plant food. Send to the Experiment Station in

your State and ask for the last bulletin on fertilizer values. It will

give a list of the brands sold throughout the State, the retail price

per ton, and the actual value of plant foods contained in a ton. Then

buy the brand in which you will apparently get the greatest value.

 

For garden crops the mixed fertilizer you use should contain (about):

 

)

Nitrogen, 4 per cent. ( Basic formula

Phosphoric acid, 8 per cent. > == for

Potash, 10 per cent. ( Garden crops

)

 

If applied alone, use at the rate of 1000 to 1500 pounds per acre. If

with manure, less, in proportion to the amount of the latter used.

 

By “basic formula” (see above) is meant one which contains the plant

foods in the proportion which all garden crops must have. Particular

crops may need additional amounts of one or more of the three elements,

in order to attain their maximum growth. Such extra feeding is usually

supplied by top dressings, during the season of growth. The extra food

beneficial to the different vegetables will be mentioned in the

cultural directions in Part Two.

 

HOME MIXING

 

If you look over the Experiment Station report mentioned above, you

will notice that what are called “home mixtures” almost invariably show

a higher value compared to the cost than any regular brand. In some

cases the difference is fifty per cent. This means that you can buy the

raw chemicals and make up your own mixtures cheaper than you can buy

mixed fertilizers. More than that, it means you will have purer

mixtures. More than that, it means you will have on hand the materials

for giving your crops the special feeding mentioned above. The idea

widely prevails, thanks largely to the fertilizer companies, that home

mixing cannot be practically done, especially upon a small scale. From

both information and personal experience I know the contrary to be the

case. With a tight floor or platform, a square-pointed shovel and a

coarse wire screen, there is absolutely nothing impractical about it.

The important thing is to see that all ingredients are evenly and

thoroughly mixed. A scale for weighing will also be a convenience.

Further information may be had from the firms which sell raw materials,

or from your Experiment Station.

 

APPLYING MANURES

 

The matter of properly applying manure, even on the small garden, is

also of importance. In amount, from fifteen to twenty-five cords, or 60

to 100 cartloads, will not be too much; although if fertilizers are

used to help out, the manure may be decreased in proportion. If

possible, take it from the heap in which it has been rotting, and

spread evenly over the soil immediately before plowing. If actively

fermenting, it will lose by being exposed to wind and sun. If green, or

in cold weather, it may be spread and left until plowing is done. When

plowing, it should be completely covered under, or it will give all

kinds of trouble in sowing and cultivating.

 

Fertilizers should be applied, where used to supplement manure or in

place of it, at from 500 to 1500 pounds per acre, according to grade

and other conditions. It is sown on broadcast, after plowing, care

being taken to get it evenly distributed. This may be assured by sowing

half while going across the piece, and the other half while going

lengthwise of it. When used as a starter, or for top