150 GARDEN GUIDE 



The soil must also be well pulverized. It pays, therefore, to take tune 

 to prepare, just as thoroughly as you possibly can, your garden soil, 

 no matter how impatient you may be to get at the more interesting 

 tasks of seed sowing and planting. 



If your garden plot is sufficiently large for a horse or team to 

 turn in plowing will be much cheaper and on the whole much 

 more satisfactory. Unless your soil is very light and sandy, it will pay 

 to plow as deeply as possible without digging up the subsoil. Get all 

 your plowing done as early in the Spring as possible. If the garden 

 has to be dug by spade, you will have to watch carefully to see that 

 the job is done thoroughly. It is hard, slow work and nothing is to be 

 gained by trying to skimp it. The garden that is dug shallow, left 

 lumpy or merely fine on the surface, cannot give good results. Dig 

 at least ten to twelve inches deep. Manure should be spread evenly 

 over the ground before spading. It is usually best to throw the first 

 row or furrow of soil out entirely, and then put the manure from the 

 next strip on the bottom of the furrow dug out, proceeding in this 

 manner across the piece. 



When planting or sowing is to be done the whole plot should be 

 raked over. It may be that only a small part of it will be wanted for 

 immediate use for the hardiest seeds or plants, but if it is all given the 

 same treatment the moisture will be conserved. It pays to take a 

 good deal of care and time to get all trash and stones raked up and re- 

 moved before you think of getting the surface ready for planting. 



For practical results the enriching of your garden can be accom- 

 plished in no better way than by the application of all the manure you 

 can conveniently get. It should be well rotted and not green and 

 lumpy. Horse and cattle manure mixed that has been kept under 

 cover and has thoroughly fermented but not "fire-fanged" or burned 

 out, is the best. If you can get enough of this to spread it three or four 

 inches deep all over your garden, you will have the foundation for big 

 crops. 



Chicken manure is particularly powerful, but should have been 

 kept so that it is fine and dry, and not stuck together in a pasty mass. 

 If you have only a small quantity, it is wise to keep it just for use in 

 hills and for transplanting rather than to spread it over the whole gar- 

 den. Sheep manure, like chicken manure, is very high in nitrogen, and 

 should be used in the same way. Within recent years it has been pos- 

 sible to purchase cattle, horse and sheep manure in standardized, pre- 

 pared forms which are dry and convenient to handle. Where yard 

 manure cannot be conveniently obtained, these can be used. 



Because it has been increasingly difficult to get manures in suffi- 

 cient quantities, commercial fertilizers have come more into use. As 



