Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-23

The sight Of huge piles Of manure
waiting near Pennsylvania nurseries for
the Autumn application to the land
gives the tourist with garden complex
opportunity to do a little thinking.
If these horticultural people
| living in q commonwealth which has
been one of the great agricultural
States since the beginning, find II
necessary to use stable manure, may
not the average backyard gardener. the
city garden amateur, find its use ex-
pedicnt, too?
In Pennsylvania, as In New Jersey
they carry on great nurseries, where
are grown roses, all sorts of shrubs
bushes, plants for consumption by the
people at large.
These plants are shipped by mail
and express to all parts Of the United
States. At this season OF the year
when the various fields are In bloom
automobile tourists find them beauti-
full and interesting sights.
Acres upon acres OF single variety
for instance, form q picture no artist
can paint, and of which photograph
gives only a faint idea. Rosebushes
stretch away to the horizon. Phlox
plants by the hundred thousand fairly
glow beneath the sun.
Just now the gladioli are coming into
bloom. Those who have never seen
field of them have a treat in store
Their vertical habit of growth per-
mits the growing of tremendous num-
bers per acre and this secures a car
peting effect almost without parallel
A visit to a field Of flowers In bloom
enables one to select just which bios
SONS one likes without any Of the
gueSSWork necessary when selecting
from catalogue descriptions.
Those travelling this Summer by all
means ought to stop long enough to
visit the various nurseries along their
routes A schedule ought not to keep
one from 1t. Yet even enthusiastic
gardeners want to push on to make a
certain number of miles q day regard
less of what they miss.
We know one Washingtonian who
went right through the town of Goshen
Ind, without stopping to visit the Kun
derd gladioli fields. We feel that he
made a mistake.
II
The great piles Of manure seen in
Pennsylvania point Enthusiastically to the
fertilizer used by these expert growers
and so give hint to the amateur which
should not be disregarded.
The tourist Is likely to feel that such
huge quantities of fertilizer are almost
tOO yCI ID, III pAlcS I'd
feet square and or 7 feet high There
is no escaping either the sight or the
Odor.
If such firms use COW and horse
manure, there can be little question that
the home gardener ought to. if he can
get it. There. alas, comes the rub. We'll
rotted manure Is difficult to secure in
great city. Those who have made an
effort to get it know that even when
supplied 1t is often Of very poor
quality.
The basic necessity Of a garden is
proper fertilizer. The average home
owner finds this out in about his fifth
year at a place. Just about the time
he gets the second trust paid off, he
discovers that the fertility has gone out
of his soil.
Perhaps his ground was not very
good, to begin with, but nevertheless II
grew flowers and a few vegetables very
nicely. That first year his asters
bloomed to perfection. A neighbor had
good sweet peas, VIGOROUSLY difficult
crop in Washington.
The following years the gardens be-
gan to go down, bit by bit. Asters had
the yellows," and sweet peas gave bios
SONS for about two weeks, after which
they turned brown, despite heroic