HOME-GROWN MANURES

Evening Star, Issue 21073, 9 April 1932, Page 20

HOME-GROWN MANURES

The shortage of animal manures is rather serious for the amateur gardener. His first thought is to depend upon artificials. Jt may be possible to carry on with these for a ‘time, but they improve the crop without doing much for tho soil. They do not help the soil to hold moisture, and all the stimulants m the world aro useless without that. You want something in tile soil which will absorb moisture and store it up for the use of the crop. This is, of course, present in animal refuse. The best way out of the difficulty is to grow a crop for the express purpose of digging it in while still green to rot and form humus. This is usually done in late summer or autumn, so that the green crop can be dug in hi time for spring sowing. You won’t be able to treat all your land in this way, but why not do a patch now? If you have cleared the plot of peas or potatoes, clean it, dig it if you have the time, and then sow it with mustard, turnip, vetches, rape, or any similar crop. Plants of the cabbage variety produce a lot of green sti and if this is dug in it cannot fail to benefit the land. You might get some drumhead savoys and plant tho plot with them. Leave them until tho spring, and then chop them up and dig all the lot into the ground.