THE WORK ON THE GROUifDS. 315 



PREPARING THE SOIL. 



To secure a satisfactory growth of all trees, shrubs, 

 flowers, and grass in the garden, the soil must be rich and 

 deeply worked. That attempts at gardening may prove 

 failures from other causes is jDossible, but lack of atten- 

 tion to these points is the most common reason why 

 many places never look well — all the trees and plants 

 having an unthrifty, half-starved appearance. 



Few soils are so stubborn that draining and a thorough 

 breaking up and manuring will not properly prepare 

 them for planting. Such soils mast be prepared by 

 trenching or subsoiling to fifteen or more inches deep, 

 at the same time working in from thirty to fifty loads of 

 good stable manure to the acre. Top-dressing in alter- 

 nate years will be required afterwards; this treatment 

 will produce grand results with whatever is planted. If 

 the soil should happen to be a heavy clay, or just opposite, 

 a light sand or gravel, by mixing in some material of an 

 opposite nature, for instance, with the clay using sand, 

 loam, or lime, and with the sand or gravel, using marl, 

 clay, peat, leaf -mould or loam in addition to the above 

 treatment, the effect would be greatly beneficial. 



Deep culture promotes growth, by giving the roots 

 ample room for extension, and the soil, if properly broken 

 up, retains moisture the entire depth to which it is 

 loosened, preventing to an astonishing degree, injury 

 from severe drouths. In the most ordinary method of 

 culture, the surface soil only is overturned, leaving the 

 subsoil below — usually of a compact sterile nature — un- 

 broken. But when the best results are desired, the sub- 

 soil should be broken up, keeping both the surface soil 

 and the subsoil separate. 



For places large enough to admit the plow, a subsoil 

 plow, following in the furrow of the common one, and 

 run down deep, is used to secure deep culture. In 



