A fertiliser mixing chart

EB taken from Amateur Gardening. Pocket Guide compiled by A. G. L. Hellyer.

I love this illustration. So simple, yet so complicated and above all rather beautiful.

I recently received a gift of the 1957 edition.

The Foreword talks in some detail about its size. It was first published in 1941. The scarcity of paper during the was was an important factor in making it 'waistcoat pocket size'.

Over the years it became a little stouter, partly because of additional content and also with the use of heavier paper.

Then, in 1957, the decision was made to increase the book's size to 'hip pocket size'. The primary reason for this, we're told, is to enable the use of larger print, bearing in mind the average age of gardeners and the frustrations of trying to read small print!
Good decision!!