308 COME INTO THE GARDEN 



dening of the most intensive character have been 

 practiced for thousands of years without a par- 

 ticle of these synthetic plant foods. 



Ground bone, dried blood, and such products 

 are not in this class of course. It is to those 

 combinations of chemicals by which many — 

 including many who should know better — set 

 such store, that I refer. If land is well manured 

 annually, lightly limed annually, and worked 

 deeply before planting, and constantly on top 

 after vegetation makes its appearance, it will 

 produce without the stimulation which chemi- 

 cals give it; and it will not become exhausted, 

 no matter how many crops are taken from it, 

 nor how abundant these may be. 



The vegetable garden space ought never to 

 receive less than four inches depth of manure 

 each spring — and more in the beginning if it is 

 poor land. This should be applied evenly as 

 early as possible (not however in the autumn 

 before!) and of course plowed under, or turned 

 under by spading if it is a small garden plot, 

 as soon as the ground is in condition to do this 

 work. The best way of deciding as to when this 

 time has arrived is to walk onto the ground and 

 see whether it packs or not. As long as it is 

 "mud" or even wet enough to be pressed down 

 and printed by the foot, it is too wet to be 



