AND THE WILDERNESS BLOSSOMED 



corner, and also in the centres of either side, 

 the whole being coated with coal-tar. The 

 paths between the beds were eighteen inches 

 wide, and down through the centre the path 

 was three feet wide, sufficient for a wheelbarrow. 

 The good soil was all passed through the sieve, 

 and the soil from one bed and one path was 

 about sufficient to fill the bed with sifted loam 

 to a depth of eighteen inches. Of course the 

 rocks we found, and the siftings from the soil, 

 together with the gravel taken out beneath the 

 beds themselves, all went to fill in the paths. 

 To compensate for the general slope of the 

 land, each bed was depressed about three inches 

 below its neighbor to the northward, while at 

 the southeastern corner a terrace three or four 

 feet high had to be built up above the natural 

 level of the ground. Each year not a little soil 

 is removed from the beds in transplanting, and 

 the loss is made up generally with sifted leaf- 

 mould. 



I use every season several of the garden beds 

 for testing varieties of annual flowers that are new 

 to me, and such seeds receive the greatest care 

 and attention. We raise here, also, certain small 

 vegetables, gathering all the radishes we require, 



128 



