GARDENING IN HEAVY SOILS 35 



though vegetarian, comparable with that of sharks 

 and crocodiles when the difference of size is considered, 

 but they have also a horrible epicurism of taste which 

 will not be satisfied by an innocent meal off the leaves 

 of vigorous and full-grown plants. They make for 

 whatever is young and tender, and are happy only 

 when they can kill where they dine. Where they 

 abound, therefore, seedlings should not be exposed to 

 them until they have outgrown their first delicacy. 1 

 All these matters make gardening on clay a difficult 

 and troublesome business; and the stiff er the clay 

 the stiffer is the gardener's task. But we cannot all 

 live on a rich loam of the right consistency. We must 

 take gardening as a game, with different rules in dif- 

 ferent places. Sometimes the rules are easy and 

 sometimes difficult. On a stiff clay they are certainly 

 very difficult. But some people find the most difficult 

 games the most interesting, and the born gardener 

 reveals his genius most when he has to deal with stiff 

 clay or pure sand. 



1 In the United States snails and slugs are not common. Their counter- 

 part may be said to be the cutworm, whose ravages many American gar- 

 deners know too well. L. Y. K. 



