The best fertilizer for the garden is the thorough use of the hose.

Each year stable manures become harder to obtain, but the fertility of the garden can be maintained by the use of commercial fertilizers, which are more concentrated foods and are much easier to work with.

The perfect plant food consists of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash.  We can obtain these in separate form and use as we need them.

Nitrogen comes in the form of a salt, called nitrate of soda, and in dried blood.  The nitrate of soda is very soluble in water and is taken up at once by the plant.  It can be scattered upon the ground near but not touching the plant, as in the latter case it would burn it.  It can also be dissolved in water—­a tablespoonful to a pail—­and the ground, but not the plant, watered.  Dried blood is slower in action and requires warmth, so should not be used early in the season.  Nitrogen promotes quick and luxuriant growth of leaves and stems and is good to use when a green growth of any kind is wished.

In bone meal we find the phosphorus necessary to aid in the development of fine and many flowers, to expand root growth and to hasten maturity.  It works slowly, so can be applied to the ground about a plant early in the season, and will be available in the ground the following year if enough is used.  Equal parts of nitrate and bone meal can be used at the rate of one to two pounds to every one hundred square feet.

Potash is almost off the market, as a result of the war, the main supply being imported from Germany.  It can be obtained from hardwood ashes, and every bit of these should be saved for the garden and stored in a dry place where they will not become leached out by the action of water.

April Spraying.—­Snowball bushes and others that have been troubled with aphides, or plant lice, the previous year should receive a thorough spraying of Black Leaf No. 40 (an extract of forty per cent. nicotine) before the leaf buds expand.  For this early spraying, two tablespoonsful of the extract can be used to every gallon of water.  It will stick to the branches better if some soap is dissolved in it.  This spray will kill most of the eggs of these pests, which will be found near the leaf buds.  When the leaves open another spraying should be given to kill all those that escaped the first treatment.  For spraying after the leaves open use one tablespoonful to each gallon of water.

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Meeting of the Minnesota Garden Flower Society, April 27th, St. Paul, Wilder Auditorium, Fifth and Washington Streets, 2:30 p.m.

Native Plants in the Garden
Shall We Collect or Grow Our Native Plants? 
Roadside Planting.

BEE-KEEPER’S COLUMN.

Conducted by FRANCIS JAGER, Professor of Apiculture, University Farm, St. Paul.