FINDING AND MAKING SOIL 211 



fully. When I first made a serious business of gar- 

 dening, I found that the winter wash and the spring 

 floods took off a large part of all that I could add 

 during the summer. It was carried down to my 

 neighbors' gardens, or it went into the road ditches 

 and then into the flat lands near the mill and then 

 was carted by the wide awake miller to fatten his 

 potatoes. 



I found that shallow surface ditches, made by the 

 plow in November, with some additional work of the 

 shovel, could be made to take this wash and carry it 

 quickly and safely out of my fields. These shallow 

 sluice-ways would disappear in the spring under the 

 work of the cultivator. This will require a little 

 careful study on your part, but be sure not to omit it. 



So you see that what you want is first of all to 

 make soil, then you must know how to keep it, and 

 then how to use it. You must not burn weeds nor 

 leaves. You must use your coal ashes, specially if 

 your soil is heavy. You must not have a slop hole 

 near your house, but must compost the house waste 

 as well as all other waste and feed it to your plants. 

 Take off your hat to the brains that are at work 

 everywhere about you. Do not get in the way and 

 hinder and do not fail to understand. 



Country home making in America is in its infancy. 

 Our gardening is still almost as crude as that of the 

 aborigines. We waste shamefully, and we overlook 

 our best property. However, we are beginning to 



