IMPROVING HEAVY SOILS 35 



deep and well drained. They occur sometimes at a considerably 

 higher level than existing streams and are sometimes designated as 

 "next to river bottom," while lower levels constitute the "river bot- 

 tom." In some small valleys they have spread deeply all over the 

 original soil, having been washed in such quantities from adjacent 

 hills, and in larger valleys have spread for considerable distances 

 out upon the plain. These are primarily the fruit lands, but they 

 are also largely used for such vegetables as thrive upon lighter and 

 drier soils. Below are the present river bottoms, usually dark, rich 

 and moist and not subject to baking or cracking, which are par ex- 

 cellence, vegetable lands. 



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 lands has been reduced 

 to fineness by cultivation after the floods and tides have been ex- 

 cluded by levees, or by natural barriers interposed by stream or 

 wave action, or by recession of lake waters according as the situa- 

 tion 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 in- 

 teiror plateaus as well. In the heat of the interior valleys they dry 

 out very rapidly when seepage or overflow 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 increase 

 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. Phis is im- 

 portant in the farm garden because there may not be anything ap- 

 proaching 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 natural soil as possible. This 



