The great West., 1892-01-08
THE FARM AND HOME.
GIVE YOUR GARDEN A LIB
ERAL MANURING.
Strawberry Plant Almost Equal to
Glover as . Rem enovat0r-Les Hay
for Horses-F9rm Notes and
Domestic Helps.
Manure the Gard en-.


This must absolutely be done and it
must be done literally. Sixteen
years experience in market gardening
has taught us that when this was done
we might expect paying crops, good
seasons or bad ones insects or no in
sects. In buying you may pay for a
substance that has the bulk, but little
plant food And in buying such
manure, time is lost, labor is lost
money is lost and the anxious
grower is disappointed. To buy
manure from livery stables you will
get much sawdust and other bedding
that made up bulk, but not one cent
OF value as manure. until it is thor
oughly rotted, except what liquid it
has absorbed. Livery stable manure,
as usual thing, is handy to get, and
the gardener is often induced to buy
it and neglect home resources. And
here is where the cheapest manure is
obtained, and where the best can be
made
To garden successfully one must
m anure heavily, and to be able to do
so he must get all the manure he can,
from every source; but at the same
time he should be on his guard not to
buy it at price that will be above the
profit that may be derived from it. To
be successful gardener is to make
the most from the least outlay of
mo1NY and labor Manuring heavily
is one of the greatest means to this
effect To secure this one must be
energetic and not despise small things
neither should he be too nice to lay
hold, but should carefully husband all
material at home, great or small,
clean or filthy, and convert it into
plant food. Where the gardener fat
tens hogs for his own meat he will
find grand resource for good man
ure, for fattening hog evacuates an
abundance of manure of the richest
quality. If no better way can be ar
ranged, he can pen his hogs in lot
and plant it to some garden crop the
following season.
If the gardener is not mindful he
will let much valuable manure waste
that is dropped around the stables, in
the lanes and in the hen-house. Much
good manure might be accumulated
by forming a compost heap at a con-
venient place and then throwing all
suds from the laundry, all old wooden
rags, waste leather, all rubbish from
the garden, ETC., upon it. These ma
terials have to be disposed of some
way and if composted could be made
into valuable plant food.
Keeping the soil loose and mellow
enables it to absorb and store up
much ammonia from the atmosphere,
and absorb and hold the nitrogen
brought down by the summer thunder
showers. Where the gardener can
so arrange his crops as to keep a part
OF his garden in clover he may
through the agency OF this crop, sup
ply his soil with nitrogen much faster
than his crops take from it. l have q
friend who is making gardening a
success and he relies on clover to keep
up his soil. writes Thomas d, Baird in
the Ohio Farmer.
Another cheap manure I have no.
ticed may be gained by setting por-
ton of the garden in strawberries.
Cultivate them the first year for the
fruit and after bearing turn them
under. I have found the strawberry
plant almost equal to clover as a
renovator of the soil. Another thing
many gardeners neglect. l am guilty
somewhat myself, and SO I know.
After their early crops are sold the
refuse is left such as cabbage stalks.
beets radishes. bean vines, etc.
These draw the plant food already in
the soil and thus it is wasted