is pretty well understood by most people, but some- 

 what difficult to describe. Such a soil is loose and 

 mellow, containing plenty of sand and organic mat- 

 ter, together with enough clay to enable it to hold 

 water with reasonable tenacity. It absorbs rainfall 

 readily without serious washing and without be- 

 coming hard and baked. Surplus water is carried 

 away quickly, making the soil warm, yet at the 

 same time retaining sufficient moisture for plant 

 growth. An abundance of decaying organic matter 

 is of prime importance in garden soils. It keeps 

 the soil loose and mellow, enables it to catch and 

 retain moisture readily and greatly increases the 

 amount of available plant food. 



The subsoil should not be too near the surface, 

 and neither too tight nor too porous. The deeper 

 the soil body the better. Not less than lo to 15 

 inches should be considered enough for any veg- 

 etable. Whenever less than this amount is avail- 

 able, measures should be taken at once to deepen it. 

 This should be done gradually, never turning up 

 more than one or two inches of the subsoil each 

 year. Any type of soil growing reasonably good 

 farm crops can be made into a good garden soil 

 with some time and effort. Screened coal cinders 

 or sand, together with stable or green manures will 

 soon lighten up a heavy soil and make it a fit place 

 for the growth of garden plants. If the soil is too 

 light or sandy, liberal applications of stable or green 

 manure will in turn make it more retentive of mois- 

 ture, while still retaining its loose and mellow con- 

 dition. Heavy soils or poorly drained soils are 

 always cold in their character. They cannot be 

 worked early in the springtime, and are available 

 only for late crops. 



