96 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



adding bone-dust, potash, and a very little lime in some 

 form. The green crop, when decayed, is lighter than clay, 

 and renders its tenacious texture more friable and porous ; 

 it also benefits the sandy soil by supplying the absent hu- 

 mus, or vegetable mold, which is essential to all plant life. 

 This mold is also cool and humid in its nature, and aids in 

 retaining moisture. 



With the exception of the constant effort to place green 

 vegetable matter under the surface, my treatment of sandy 

 ground would be the reverse of that described for clay. 

 Before using the product of the horse-stable, I would com- 

 post it with at least an equal bulk of leaves, muck, sods, or 

 even plain earth if nothing better could be found. A com- 

 post of stable manure with clay would be most excellent. 

 If possible, I would not use any manure on light ground 

 until all fermentation was over, and then I would rather 

 harrow than plow it in. This will leave it near the surface, 

 and the rains will leach it do^vn to the roots — and below 

 them, also — only too soon. Fertility cannot be stored up 

 in sand as in clay, and it should be our aim to give our 

 strawberries the food they need in a form that permits of 

 its immediate use. Therefore, in preparing such land, I 

 would advise deep plowing while it is moist, if possible, soon 

 after a rain ; then the harrowing in of a liberal topdressing 

 of rotted compost, or of muck sweetened by the action of 

 frost and the fermentation of manure, or, best of all, the 

 product of the cow-stable. Decayed leaves, sods, and wood- 

 ashes also make excellent fertilizers. 



In the garden, light soils can be given a much more sta- 

 ble and productive character by covering them with clay to 

 the depth of one or two inches every fall, and then plowing 

 it in. The winter's frost and rains mix the two diverse soils, 

 to their mutual benefit. Carting sand on clay is rarely re- 



