ng and worked into
the surface around growing plants with the hoe. =Steamed bone meal= or
=flour= is another useful phosphatic fertiliser, valuable on the lighter
classes of soil.

==Potash manures== are of benefit to plants in all stages of growth. They
are particularly valuable to Potatoes, leguminous crops, Carrots,
Parsnips, Turnips, and Beet. Like the phosphatic manures they should be
worked into the soil before seeds are sown or plants are put out.
=Kainit= is best applied in autumn, for it contains a considerable
amount of common salt and magnesium compounds which are sometimes
deleterious and best washed away in the drainage water during winter. It
should be dug in at the rate of about three pounds per square rod.
=Sulphate of potash= is three or four times as rich in potash as kainit,
and is correspondingly more expensive; apply in spring and summer, a
little in advance of sowing or planting, at the rate of about one pound
per square rod.

==Lime==.--- A word or two must be said about lime, which is a natural
constituent of all soils. In many instances there is sufficient for the
needs of most plants, but where lime is deficient in quantity it must be
added before healthy crops can be raised. Old gardens to which dung has
been freely applied annually require a liberal dressing of lime every
few years, or the ground becomes sour and incapable of growing good
crops of any kind. To insure the proper action of whatever manures are
used and to secure healthy crops, an application of slaked quicklime, at
the rate of fourteen to twenty pounds per square rod, is strongly
recommended. As a remedy against 'clubbing' or 'finger-and-toe' disease
of the Cabbage tribe of plants it is indispensable; it also neutralises
the baneful acidity of the land, and opens up stiff soils, making them
more easily tilled, more readily penetrated by the air, and warmer by
the better drainage of water through them.

The following suggestions for the manuring of the different crops
mentioned will be found effective. It is, however, not intended that
they should be slavishly followed, for useful substitutions may be made
in the formulae given, if the nature of the various fertilisers is
understood and an intelligent grasp is obtained of the principles of
manuring enunciated in this and the preceding chapter.

In place of nitrate of soda, a similar quantity of sulphate of ammonia
may be used.

Instead of superphosphate, the following may