44 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



Peat Lands. Another class of alluvial soils is known as peat 

 soils, which consist of mixtures in various proportions of silt and 

 sediment with the debris of centuries' growth of swamp plants 

 which the streams have currently overflowed in flood times or 

 over which they have risen daily as the tide wall has held back 

 their waters. This organic matter from the aquatic plants is in 

 various stages of decomposition, but in the best of the lands has 

 been reduced to fineness by cultivation after the floods and tides 

 have been excluded by levees, or by natural barriers interposed 

 by stream or wave action, or by recession of lake waters accord- 

 ing as the situation is on the coast or distant interior. This light 

 but very deep and rich soil especially suits some plants and is the 

 basis of some of our export vegetable business, as for instance, 

 asparagus and celery growing. Such soils are of course used 

 locally for all esculent plants which thrive upon them and which 

 the market favors. Such lands are in vast area in many parts of 

 the state, from near the ocean to the margins of interior rivers and 

 lakes and waters of interior plateaux as well. In the heat of the 

 interior valleys they dry out ve'ry rapidly when seepage or over- 

 flow from streams and sloughs is cut off by levees. They are non- 

 retentive, owing to the coarseness of their structure, but irrigation 

 is easily accomplished, as will be noted in the proper connection. 



IMPROVEMENT OF SOIL TEXTURE FOR GARDENING. 



Aside from such treatment of the soil as is designed to in- 

 crease its fertility, which will be considered in the chapter on 

 fertilizing, it seems fitting in this connection to suggest measures 

 by which the texture of the soil may be improved when necessary. 

 This is important in the farm garden because there may not be 

 anything approaching an ideal garden soil inside the line fences. 

 But this fact should not discourage the home gardener, as has 

 already been intimated. 



If one observes the operation of market gardeners or reads 

 any treatise on gardening written for the older countries, he is 

 apt to conclude that the Creator has done little for the modern 

 garden except to furnish a place to put it, because the chief art 

 of gardening seems to consist in using as little of the natural soil 

 as possible. This state of affairs has not arisen in California yet, 

 for the reasons shown in the descriptions of our garden soils, and 



