THE GARDEN. 6 1 



which is true of some other soils. This ideal land 

 remembers past favors; it retains the fertilizers 

 with which it has been enriched, and returns them 

 in the form of good crops until the gift is ex- 

 hausted; therefore it is a thrifty as well as a 

 grateful soil. The owner can bring it up to the 

 highest degree of fertility, and keep it there by 

 judicious management. This sandy loam Na- 

 ture's blending of sand and clay is a safe bank. 

 The manure incorporated with it is a deposit which 

 can be drawn against in fruit and vegetables, for 

 it does not leach away and disappear with one 

 season's rains. 



Light, thin, sandy soil, with a porous or gravelly 

 subsoil, is of a very different type, and requires 

 different treatment. It is a spendthrift. No mat- 

 ter how much you give it one year, it very soon 

 requires just so much more. You can enrich it, 

 but you can't keep it rich. Therefore you must 

 manage it as one would take care of a spendthrift, 

 giving what is essential at the time, and in a way 

 that permits as little waste as possible. I shall 

 explain this treatment more fully farther on. 



In the choice of a garden plot you may be re- 

 stricted to a stiff, tenacious, heavy clay. Now you 

 have a miser to deal with, a soil that retains, but 

 in many cases makes no proper use of, what it 

 receives. Skill and good management, however, 



