THE 
= SOIL 
uated soil can be made to yield good returns, 
and the gardener who is not disposed to give 
proper care and attention will find nothing 
in this book, or in any other, that will teach 
him how to succeed. The German idea is 
that a good soil is merely a place to put fertil- 
izers (and German ideas on gardening are not 
to be despised). This is simply another way 
of repeating that, with brains and work any 
soil can be made to yield good returns. It is 
not safe, however, to trust to the “Light of 
Nature” as to what ‘‘ proper care and attention” 
is, so here are the details. 
If you are already settled and are planning 
to use your back yard for a garden, you will 
have to take the soil as it is, and by your own 
effort make it what it should be. There is no 
cause for despair no matter what it may be. 
A back yard that was trodden almost as com- 
pact as asphalt, and whose clods when dug had 
to be broken up with an axe, was made to yield 
a large variety of flowers the first season it 
was planted. So go ahead and do what you 
can with what you have. But, if you are hunt- 
ing for a garden plot, bear in mind the import- 
ance of soil texture. You may thereby save 
yourself both time and labor. 
The first thing is to examine the soil to de- 
3 
