BOOK OF THE HOME GARDEN 



wide, and the path through the middle two feet 

 wide. 



If you have not already put humus on your 

 garden, now is the time to get it and spread it on the 

 beds (but not on the paths). We want to fork it 

 down where the roots can feed upon it and where it 

 will hold moisture for them. This humus does some- 

 thing more than I have told you, it changes the 

 minerals which are in all soils into a different form 

 so plants can use them. If we do not have some 

 humus these minerals remain locked up so they are 

 of no use to our plants. When humus decays it 

 gives off a kind of gas which makes this magic 

 change. This is interesting and wonderful and 

 makes our garden work mean so much more to us. 



Now stand at the end of one of these beds and 

 put your garden fork into the ground near the left 

 hand corner, press it down deep, lift the clod of 

 earth, turn it over, and spat it with the tines of the 

 fork until it crumbles to pieces. Take a fork full 

 next it to the right, turn it, spat it; then take an- 

 other fork full. Now you have a row forked at the 

 end of the bed; take a row next to it nearer the 

 center of the bed and so on, stepping backward all 

 the time until you reach the other end of the bed. 

 I expect you wonder why I have been so particular 



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