38 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



its amelioration he can proceed rationally and accom- 

 plish marvels with Will, Work and Water upon almost 

 any soil, from a brick yard to a desert. City people have 

 grown their table supplies on housetops; no ruralist can 

 find a less productive subsoil. 



Light Rather Than Heavy Soils. The characters already 

 cited point clearly to what is commonly designated as a 

 Bather light soil as best for vegetable growing. The ex- 

 creme variations in soils are popularly known as heavy 

 adobe and light sandy soils. Neither are usually counted 

 suitable for garden purposes without treatment to over- 

 come their defects and yet as the terms are used in some 

 California regions, there are very good gardens on both 

 of them. The explanation is that in such localities one has 

 less sand and one less clay than the other. Both are 

 really loams or mixtures of sand and clay: one a clayey 

 loam, the other a loamy sand. Aside from this misappre- 

 hension of terms we have of course clays (locally called 

 "adobe") which are true enough to the type to bring 

 despair to the most patient gardener and we have washes 

 of pure sand on which a shallow-rooting plant could hardly 

 live with a stream of water running beside it. But our 

 shifting sands of the interior plains and our so-called 

 deserts are sandy loams which yield profusely when prop- 

 erly irrigated. For the improvement of defective soils for 

 the farm-garden, suggestions will be given later. 



Soils Naturally Excellent. For field growth of vegeta- 

 bles in California the grower is usually content to proceed 

 upon the natural texture and fertility of his soil. The 

 crop is chosen to suit the local soil and climate, conse- 

 quently we have districts becoming famous for special 

 vegetable products as demand for them in considerable 

 quantities is demonstrated. In such districts the soils 

 are rather light and yet ample in richness to endure for 

 some time the drain of continuous cropping in the same 

 line. We have areas of such soils considerably in excess 

 of their present profitable use. They constitute one of our 



