WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 103 



you get the bills for the manure you think 

 you cannot fertilize too little. Of course 

 you do not expect to get the value of the 

 manure back in fruits and vegetables ; but 

 something is due to science, to chemistry 

 in particular. You must have a knowledge 

 of soils ; must have your soil analyzed, and 

 then go into a course of experiments to find 

 what it needs. It needs analyzing, that 

 I am clear about: everything needs that. 

 You had better have the soil analyzed before 

 you buy : if there is " pusley " in it, let it 

 alone. See if it is a soil that requires much 

 hoeing, and how fine it will get if there is no 

 rain for two months. But when you come 

 to fertilizing, if I understand the agricultural 

 authorities, you open a pit that will ulti- 

 mately swallow you up, farm and all. It 

 is the great subject of modern times, how to 

 fertilize without ruinous expense ; how, in 

 short, not to starve the earth to death while 

 we get our living out of it. Practically, the 

 business is hardly to the taste of a person of 

 a poetic turn of mind. The details of fer 



