CHAPTER I* 



MAKING THE SOIL OVER 



THE home gardener must use the soil he has, but 

 he can improve it if it is poor, and he must do 

 this as far as possible. Stable manure will help 

 even the richest soil, and you are not likely to use too 

 much of it. During a single season professional gar- 

 deners apply as much as six inches of it. Coarse manure 

 should be applied and thoroughly plowed or spaded 

 under in the fall. In the spring, fine, rotted manure is 

 applied, just before plowing, or spading, preceding the 

 planting of any crop. If the ground is fairly rich, and 

 well-rotted manure is scarce, the manure may be scat- 

 tered in the row only, and should be mixed into the soil 

 before the planting of seed. 



Loam is the best garden soil. Sand, with manure, 

 gives good results. Clay is hardest to work, but is 

 greatly improved by well-rotted manure and vegetable 

 matter, called humus. These should be well worked in 

 with hoe and rake. Sifted coal ashes, entirely free from 

 clinkers, will help loosen up clay when mixed into it, 

 but will not remove an acid condition nor increased 

 fertility. 



* This chapter, as well as the two following, arc taken by per- 

 mission, from instructions prepared for the National War Garden 

 Commission, by twenty-two leading American experts. The 

 Planting Table, and the page entitled "Arrangement of Season's 

 Crops," are from the same eminent source. 



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