2 GARDEN STEPS 



shall be increased and improved. Remember that 

 you are helping to solve one of the greatest prob- 

 lems of the race, the food supply. There is no 

 better test of determination of character than the 

 garden. In the long run, failure is impossible to 

 those who apply the qualities needed in the task. 

 Nature knows no favorites. The rain falls on all 

 ahke, but the hoe and the harrow shall say whether 

 the rain waters weeds or fruit. 



Fall Care of the Soil 



Many of the most important steps in gardening 

 must be taken in the fall. This is the time to look 

 over the land for next year and plan for its prepara- 

 tion. If you are to use land which is at present cov- 

 ered with sod, the fall is the time to plow it under. 

 If possible, all the land should be plowed at this 

 season. Fall plowing breaks open the nests of 

 many injurious insects that are wintering in the 

 soil, thus greatly reducing their numbers when 

 spring comes. It also makes the ground more open 

 and porous, saves it from washing in the winter 

 rains, and gives it more capacity to hold water in 

 case of a drought in the early summer. 



An additional advantage may be gained at this 

 time if a catch crop of rye or clover is sown, to be 

 plowed under in the spring. When the ground is 

 harrowed, scatter about a quart of rye or a half 

 pint of clover seed to the twenty-foot square, and 



