The Busy Woman s Garden Book 



for a strip of land fifty feet square. If the land 

 is light and sandy the manure should be well 

 rotted but on clay or heavy tenacious soil fresh 

 manure gives better results as it breaks apart the 

 particles of the soil, by the expansion caused by 

 heating, and adds sand, which is also a mechanical 

 disintegrant, permanent in effect. 



There is another way in which humus can be 

 immediately supplied and that is by applications 

 of woods earth or marsh earth-muck, directly to 

 the soil. Where a supply of either form of hu- 

 mus is available it pays well to employ it. For a 

 number of years I made a practice of keeping 

 track of available sources of humus, noting as 

 I drove about the country where new land was 

 being broken up and especially where marsh 

 land was being ditched and drained; then in 

 the spring I would engage the owner to haul 

 me as many loads as I required, but as the time 

 passed it became necessary to go farther and 

 "arther afield until the cost of hauling became pro- 

 hibitive. 



There has been considerable discussion of late 

 68 



