Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-03-20
FERTILIZERS

There are so many kinds Of fertilizers
and these again are SO Subdivided into
proprietary brands that one cannot but
help envy the old-time gardener, who
had merely to order a load or two of
well rotted stable manure and thereby
settle his fertilizer needs. Manure is
well balanced plant fooj-that is, it
contains some of all the essential ele-
ments and in addition it contains a
whole lot of decaying vegetable matter
that puts the soil in a workable con-
dition and keeps it so. Chemical fer
tiliZers contain the essential plant
foods. but they do not have the decay
ing substances which promote better
physical condition of the soil. Just
here is where peat moss comes in and
why 1t has proved such a boon to
gardeners with heavy cay or light,
sandy soils. Peat moss makes the soil
porous and helps it to hold water in
dry periods and, when USED with chem
ical manureS. makes a very fair subSti-
tute for stable manure.
Taking the average soil of this vicin-
ity one can safely assume that it needs
fertilizing in order to produce garden
crops worthy Of the name. Nitrogen
is usually the most limiting element
Of plant food, with phosphorus next.
The need of potash Is somewhat less
certain in local soils, but, as the three
usually are present in mixed fertilizer,
it is as well to use all three. There
are a dozen or SO of other elements
necessary to plants. but these are in
natural supply in our soils.
Nitrogen, the most needed and most
costly element, can be bought in stable
manure. in mixed commercial fertilizer
nF eliminate n
ammonia. In commercial fertilizer the
percentage composition is printed on
the container. A 4-8-4 fertilizer con-
tains 4 per cent of actual nitrogen.
per cent of phosphoric acid and per
cent of potassium, the rest made up
of inactive materials At least 4 per
cent of nitrogen Is needed for garden
crops Fertilizers with less nitrogen
are cheaper in price for the simple
reason that they are less valuable to
the garden. Fertilizers with more
nitrogen. for example. some of the new
materials with 80 or 40 per cent are
very good, but are rather difficult to
use, because they must be applied so
lightly that 1t requires lot OF care
not to overdo the task and burn the
plants.
Phosphorus, the second element in
Importance. may be purchased in mixed
fertilizer, as superphosphate or in bone
meal PHOSPHORUS seems scarcely less
important than nitrogen, and one OF
the reasons that bone meal is such a
useful fertilizer is that it contains both
PHOSPHORUS and nitrogen. Superphos-
phate is often added to poultry
manure, so as to increase its phos-
phorous content, which is rather low,
and make the manure a better all
around garden fertilizer. Fortunately,
superphosphate is very reasonable IN
price and may be used as freely as
needed.
Lime cannot be considered as a
fertilizer, although small quantities are
essential to most plants. Lime, how
ever, helps make the soil more work
able and seems to greatly help In
making certain foods available to
plants, cabbage, beets. etc. On the
other hand. with plants such as
azaleas, blueberries and rhododendrons,,
whose natural home is in very acid
soils, lime may be very harmful indeed