The Soil 



67 



it is crumbly and easily worked ; and until your gar- 

 den is brought to this condition you cannot attain 

 the greatest success from your efforts. I emphasized 

 "properly cultivated." That means that the soil 

 must be kept well supplied with humus, or decom- 

 posed vegetable matter, either by the application of 

 sufficient quantities of organic manures, or by green 

 manuring, or by "resting under grass," which pro- 

 duces a similar result from the amount of roots and 

 stubble with which the soil is filled when the sod is 

 broken up. Only by this supply of humus can the 

 garden be kept in that light, friable, spongy condi- 

 tion which is absolutely essential to luxuriant vege- 

 table growth. 



PREPARING THE SOIL 



Unless your garden be a very small one indeed, it 

 will pay to have it plowed rather than dug up by 

 hand. If necessary, ar- 

 range the surrounding 

 fence as suggested in 

 the accompanying dia- 

 gram, to make possible 

 the use of a horse for 

 plowing and harrow- 

 ing. (As suggested in 

 the chapter on Imple- 

 ments, page 32), if 



