Читать книгу Make Your Garden Feed You - E. Brown T. - Страница 35

One of the best substitutes for farmyard manure is hop manure. There are numerous proprietary manures of this description; all have spent hops as the basis (these supply humus) together with various chemicals. They are excellent, while they are easy and clean to handle and apply. They should be used at the rate advised by the vendors.

Many different kinds of organic refuse are converted into manure. They include shoddy, leather dust, damaged cattle cakes, rape dust, cotton-seed dust, feather waste, hair waste, hoof and horn waste, and so on. The amateur gardener should make inquiries in his own district concerning whether any of these are obtainable. If so they should be applied and dug into the soil in the autumn or winter in the same way as natural manure and at the same rate—three barrowloads to the rod.

Those who live near a large town or in a city may be able to obtain regular supplies of sewage. The solid matter is extracted and usually mixed with lime, alumina, and other chemicals and disposed of to agriculturists. It is usually obtainable in two forms—sludge which is something like soft clay, or dried and ground into a fine powder. The former is the better. It should be applied at the rate of 4 cwt. to the rod and dug in during the winter, preferably after it has lain on the surface for a short time and been subjected to a few frosts.

Gardeners living at the seaside may be able to collect seaweed. This is excellent and about equal in value to farmyard manure. It should be stacked up and allowed to rot down. Apply and dig into the soil in the autumn or winter.