KEEPING VEGETABLE MATTER IN THE SOIL 



Never burn leaves, grass, or the stalks of plants, but find 

 a way of adding these materials to your soil. Plants can- 

 not grow without matter of this kind, and if you burn it up, 

 you will be forced to buy manure to take its place. 



A good way to use leaves is to rake them together about 

 bushes or shrubs and throw a layer of soil over them. They 

 act like a quilt to hold the water in the earth, and when 

 they decay they enrich the soil. 



When the garden is spaded, weeds and stalks of vegetables 

 may be laid in the bottom of the trench and buried, and vege- 

 table matter can always be added to the compost heap and 

 allowed to rot for fertilizer. This material not only feeds the 

 plants, but it makes the soil lighter and more easily worked. 



Another way to add vegetable matter to the soil is to 

 raise crops and spade or plow them into the land. Farmers 

 often grow whole fields of cowpeas, clover, and other crops 

 and plow them under to enrich the soil. When these crops 

 are grown during the winter they are called cover crops. 

 You will find a cover crop very valuable in case you cannot 

 secure fertilizer in proper amount. 



If, after harvesting your garden crops, you have any 

 land you do not wish to use, spade it up and sow it with rye. 

 The next spring this rye can be turned under, and it will 

 help to fertilize that part of the garden. 



Many other plants besides rye are used for cover crops. 

 Where the climate is mild, crimson clover and vetch are 

 grown for this purpose. 



Cover crops should be sown early enough to allow them to 

 make considerable growth before winter. Otherwise they 

 will not add much vegetable matter to the soil. 



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