Evening star., 1925-09-18

small weeder, or hand cultivat2r.
made with four or five fingerlike
prones.
After firmins the seed into the soil
the gardener in question covered the
ground completely with bone meal to
depth of a fourth of an inch or
more. That evening the lawn was
given good watering, though care
was taken not TO wash out the bone
meal.
A good watering every evening, and
the grass was coming up at the end
Of the third day, with most of the
bone meal sunk into the ground. At
the end of the first week the tender
blades were fully an inch high.
The unusual warmth. of course,
had something to do with 1t, but the
gardener declared that he was in
clined TO give most Of the credit to
the bone meal, not forgetting, of
course, the high terminating quality
of the seed he used.
Without good grass seed 10 start
with, it must be stated. one might
as well save his time and labor. for
you cannot get a satisfactory stand
Of grass even with medium quality
seed. In other words. you cant get
something for nothing.
\
The beauty Of bone meal. as far as
the amateur gardener is concerned,
is that 1t helps growth. without burn
ing the roots of his plants and
flowers.
AS far as experiments carried out
this Summer go-and they seem con-
elusive enough-bone meal is the one
sure fire" fertilizer
On roses 1t is perhaps the one best
thing to use, as all the books agree.
Around such towering bulbs as the
glorious gladiolus il may be used
with fine results and absolute safety.
To feel safe In the use of fertilizer
is 4 fine feeling in itself.
A strewing of medium ground bone
meal at intervals OF once a month
during Spring and Summer is about
the best thing one ca do for the lawn.
II should be ,watered in well, more to
wash 1t out of sight than for any
either reason. Putting IL on just be-
fore a rain is good.
For flower boxes bone meal is Just
as good thing as il is possible to
use. One has to be even more careful
here than in the garden that he does
not burn the roots or flower stalks.
he can use bone meal freely, with no
danger, and only best results
IT should be kept in mind, however,
that bone meal Is not A so-called COM
plete fertilizer. 1t lacks nitrogen and
other elements that plants require.
There are several very good CONNER
cial fertilizers on the market that can
be used TO supplement the bone meal
One good method is TO place them on
the border or in the rows in October
rake them in. and let them Winter"
This is perhaps the best way of using
manure-if you can find any. The
good in it is leeched into the soil, so
that by Spring the residue may be
dug under safely. adding the neces-
Sary humus to the soil.
Bone meal first got its start on the
farms or the country. where il was
called bone dust. There are bone
dust establishments just outside Balti-
more that smell up the river for.
square miles.
The bone meal in use today. such as
referred to herein. is made from cattle
bones, and is medium ground. decom-
posing somewhat slowly in the soil.
A pulverized meal may be purcha sed
in New York, but il is rather expen.
slve, and no better than the other. il
one Is consistent in his applications.
Bone meal is clean to use not OBJ
1ectionable In any sense. There is no
necessity for using a meal made of
f1sh bones. as this smells to high
heaven, and gives no better results
than the less odoriferous variety. if
as good.
For ANIMALS such as the aster. for
perennials such as the peonv. for
roses, for bulbs such as the gIadiolus
ana tulip. for the lawn, there is moth.
ing so good as good old bone meal