18 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



lap at the entrances, so as to exclude all winds except the 

 southerly. Set the trees pretty closely together, and the pro- 

 tection afforded when they grow up will enable you to sow and 

 plant with safety from one to two weeks earlier than would 

 otherwise be expedient, and in a majority of seasons the ma- 

 turing of your crops will be equally advanced. The birds, too, 

 your best friends in garden or orchard, will winter with you, 

 which friends do not always, and be ready to enter with you 

 upon the labors of spring. 



MECHANICAL PREPARATION. 



In making a new garden, it is desirable, if it be possible, to 

 effect whatever mechanical preparation it may require before 

 fencing it. If the plot selected be a deep rich soil, free from 

 stone, a thorough and deep plowing is sufficient. If a deep 

 free soil and subsoil, but not rich, manure heavily and trench- 

 plow it. If the soil be shallow, and the subsoil very compact, 

 or a hardpan, yet free from stone, manure heavily and trench- 

 plow as directed (page 23), running, however, a subsoil plow 

 -^ead of the second stroke, and following it with the same to 

 loosen it still deeper, if you think expedient. See SUBSOIL 

 PLOWING. A subsequent cross - plowing with the common 

 plow, followed by the subsoiler, will perfect the preparatory 

 work. Should the soil of your garden plot be stony, it must 

 be trenched at least eighteen inches deep, and all stones taken 

 out that are too large to be gathered by the rake in the course 

 of ordinary cultivation ; but if trenching is found necessary, it 

 may be done in sections at any time after the plot is fenced. 

 If the soil of your plot is a moderately light loam, when en- 

 riched it will become a perfect garden soil. If it be strong 

 loam, repeated and high manuring with stable and other stim- 

 ulating manure will steadily improve it. If it be heavy loam 

 or clay, cart on sand or road-wash as freely as you can from 

 time to time, and manure often and highly. If, on the con- 

 trary, the soil is sandy, cart on loam or clay, and mix it well 

 by repeated plowing and harrowing, using at the same time 

 cow and hog manure, leached ashes, marl, or swamp muck, 

 avoiding the use of barn-yard or stable manure, unless in com- 

 post, or when perfectly rotted. 



