The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1911-02-04
Gai den Manures and Fertilizers.

Stable manure is excellent for the
garden, Of course, but annual manur-
ing with stable manure only will soon
get an excess of nitrogen in the soil
and you will find that your potatoes
run to tops and make small potatoes.
and that your tomatoes grow too
rankly and make too many imperfect
fruits. Now, / do not advise stopping
the use Of stable manure on the gar
den, but L do advise making it bet
ter balanced plant food. 1t is deficient
especially in phosphoric acid, and its
efficiency will be greatly promoted by
mixing at least 100 pounds of acid
phosphate to every ton Of the manure.
Then If the liquid portion of the man.
ure has been carefully saved, there
will not be much deficiency in potash,
but on sandy soils it is better to add
some muriate Of potash, say 20 pounds
to the ton of manure. Now, while I
do not think that for ordinary farm
crops 1t pays to compost and fine the
manure, it does pay for the garden.
l would pile the manure now and
scatter the acid phosphate and pot
ash through it, placing it in a broad,
flat heap. AS soon as signs Of heating
show. turn it and reptile it in the same
fiat heap. Then make layers Of fine
black mold from the woods six inch
es thick, and cover with a layer Of
the mixed manure Of same thickness
and carry the heap up. in this way
keeping it broad and fiat. If heat
ing shows. chop this all down and
mix completely and reptile it in the
flat heap. In this way you will soon
have a heap Of fine and we'll decom-
posed compost that will be more read
lily available to the plants than fresh
manure. For my garden 1 get the
stable manure from New York City.
mixed in it, and it is important to get
this fine before applying it to the soil.
Last spring 1 raked out all the hay
and straw from the New York manure
as / got it too late for composing.
This rough stuff 1 used to make
lazy bed for Irish potatoes, planting
the potatoes rather shallow and CIV
ing them some commercial fertilizer,
and then covered the whole plot with
the rough rakings from the manure.
There was a good crop Of potatoes,
and by the time they were dug the
rough stuff was getting pretty rotten,
and it was turned under to complete
rotting. On this 1 built my frame for
lettuce, and set the plants. AS soon
as the plants were we'll started, l ap-
piled high-grade fertilizer between
the rows and worked it in we'll, and
the growth Of that lettuce was re-
markable. 1t has just been cut out
and the frame is planted in beets and
radishes, and l hope to get the radish-
es out by last of February and the
beets by last of March, and / think
that these crops will pay the entire
cost Of the sashes and frame and these
are good for years to come.
| have another frame Of same size
(i2 feet l0ng) in which l have rows
of onions for punching in February
and lettuce between them. This let
tuce is for the spring crop, and l find
that the growth in this frame which
did not have the rotten, coarse ma
nure, but only fertilizer, has not made
an equal growth to the one where the
coarse manure was rotted. In fac,
| find that we need manure and fer.
tilizer both for the best results in
the acknowledgements Farmer.