94 THE BEGINNER'S GARDEN BOOK 



sun, will often bake hard. Again, a clay soil, if left too long, 

 will bake, crack deeply, and dry out through the cracks. 

 The sandy soil, therefore, has an advantage over the clay 

 soil. 



Again, take the four pots, wet to the top, and set in the 

 sun after taking the temperature of each. Record the tem- 

 perature throughout the day, and see if the sandy soil does 

 not warm up much the fastest. If you had cultivated it 

 first, it would have warmed faster still. A clay soil will there- 

 fore take much longer to warm in spring, or after a rain. If 

 you looked for a reason you would need to be told that 

 evaporation (or drying) continues longest from the wet clay, 

 and that evaporation chills. That is why your wet hand 

 feels cold when you hold it in the wind. 



We have now found two advantages of the sandy soil over 

 the clayey. For a crop that needs a quick start in spring, 

 or which wants warmth more than a great supply of water, it 

 is the better soil. 



As we think over the kinds of soil and their advantages, 

 we wonder how we can change what we have in our garden. 

 The sandy soil often holds too little water. We can improve 

 it by working into it manure, which holds water well. We 

 could, of course, work clay in, but as clay is hard to handle 

 that is seldom done. On the other hand, sand is often worked 

 into clay soil, to lighten it. Very fine coal ashes will also 

 improve clays. But best of all is manure, whose fine light 

 fibers do the same service, and which provides plant food in 

 addition. 



There is yet another method of improving clay soils. We 

 have seen that they puddle, that is, cake, when worked too 

 soon after a rain. A clay soil plowed too soon in spring may 

 be injured for two or three years by this caking. To show the 

 difference in soils in this respect, make mud-balls of the 



