PREPARING THE SOIL 29 



ments it will not reach down a foot. When such is the 

 case it will be the duty of the grower to do all in his 

 power to increase the depth of the surface soil. The 

 obvious but most expensive way of doing this is to pur- 

 chase one or more loads of loam and to spread it all over 

 the ground after the latter has been dug. Where such 

 is out of the question, and it will be on most allotments, 

 the uppermost layers of the subsoil, if of a clay nature, 

 should be well broken up and mixed with vegetable 

 refuse, the least useful grades of animal manure, cinders, 

 and the contents of the dust bin, so long as this does not 

 include tins, broken glass and other unassimilable 

 material. Where the subsoil is sandy, anything that 

 makes for adhesion, such as cow manure, may be 

 worked in with advantage. The effect of this operation 

 will be to increase gradually the depth of the surface 

 soil and to loosen or bind the subsoil as the case may 

 demand. 



Draining the Plot. Before commencing the actual 

 task of digging it will be well to give an eye to the 

 drainage of the land. On most plots the natural filtering 

 away of the water will prove sufficient, but to a piece of 

 ground that is waterlogged, and consequently sour, some 

 attention must be paid. In such a case it will prove 

 advantageous to dig out a fairly deep hole in the lowest 

 point of the plot and to partially fill it with coarse 

 cinders, broken bricks, damaged flower pots, tree 

 branches, old tins, and a few small wooden boxes. 

 When these have been thrown in lightly, the soil is 

 covered over them and the hole filled up. This will 

 probably serve to drain the plot, but where extra 



