==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 be advantageously employed:  phosphatic guano, or mixtures of basic slag and superphosphate, or bone meal and superphosphate; or basic slag may be applied alone on land deficient in lime.

Four pounds of kainit may also take the place of one pound of sulphate of potash in the suggested mixtures mentioned below.

Where dung is recommended, twenty to twenty-five loads per acre is meant; larger quantities are frequently applied, but these are uneconomical and much less efficient than more moderate amounts supplemented with artificial fertilisers.

All the manures should be worked into the soil before sowing or planting out, except the nitrate of soda, which is best applied separately to the growing plants, preferably in small doses at intervals of two to four weeks.

=In all cases the quantities of artificials named are intended for use on one square rod or pole of ground.=

Peas and beans.—­These leguminous plants are able to obtain all the nitrogen they need from the air.  They should, however, be amply supplied with potash and phosphates, a good dressing being:—­

2-3/4 to 3-1/2 lb. superphosphate
           3/4 lb. sulphate of potash

Dwarf beans are sometimes benefited by the addition of 1/2-lb. to 1 lb. of nitrate of soda.

Asparagus.

A dressing of dung
         2 lb. nitrate of soda
3-1/2 to 4 lb. superphosphate
         3 lb kainit