THE SOIL 



weighted in the soil with which he has to deal, and how 

 much it is overweighted; there is a simple test which 

 will show, approximately and near enough. 



How To Test the Soil 



Go out into the garden or onto the ground where 

 the garden is to be, and turn up a spadeful of earth 

 there three days after there has been a rainfall. Is 

 it powdery and light ? Then sand predominates and 

 when sand predominates organic matter is what is 

 needed to bind the particles together. Is it sticky and 

 like putty, retaining the imprint of your fingers ? That 

 means a lack of sand, with correspondingly too much 

 clay; so it is sand or some loosening agent that is the 

 thing required. 



Ordinary manure is as good as anything you can get 

 for supplying the needs of a too sandy soil, while deep 

 plowing, which gives the water a chance to escape from 

 clay, is often all that an ordinarily heavy soil that has 

 lain unworked, requires to make it into a friable loam. 

 If this does not lighten it enough, however, a dressing 

 of lime should follow. 



Begin your garden by doing this work with the 

 soil. The weathering of it during a winter will help 

 greatly, for the action of the frost and sun has a 

 decided physical effect that should be taken advantage 

 of whenever possible. With a spring beginning there 

 is no time for these to do their portion of the work 

 but with a start made in the fall there are from six 



