~ March, 1912 
amateur is likely to give too little or no 
consideration is the correct preparation 
of the soil. It is as necessary, if one 
would have a really successful garden, 
to have this part of the work done right 
as it is to lay adequate foundations for 
a substantial house. Just to give this 
point the emphasis which it deserves, I 
want to mention a few of the reasons 
why this careful preparation of the soil 
is essential before describing how to 
do it. 
In the first place, nothing is more im- 
portant to plant growth than a sufficient 
supply of soil moisture. Without this, 
no amount of plant food—manures, fer- 
tilizers, etc.—will bring success; no 
amount of care and cultivation will pro- 
duce good growth. Ina sense, water 1s 
to plants both drink and food, for their 
food must be taken from the soil in solu- 
tion. The soil serves, in a way, as a 
tank for the storage of this moisture, 
and the amount that can be stored de- 
pends on (1) the depth of the cultivated 
soil, the thoroughness with which it is broken up, or (2) the 
“mechanical condition” and the amount of vegetable, spongy 
matter, (3) “humus” which it contains. In the second place, 
most of the “plant food” contained in the soil is in a raw 
state, called ‘unavailable.’ ‘The chemical changes which 
these foods—forms or compounds of nitrogen, phosphoric 
succession. 
Here one sees the gardener tending his rows of well-ordered vegetables. 
Plant early and late varieties of peas for 
There are few table vegetables 
of greater value 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 93 
acid, and potash—must undergo before 
being available are hastened by the pul- 
verizing and disintegration of the soil. 
Therefore it is readily seen that a thor- 
ough mechanical breaking up of the 
ground serves the double purpose of 
making a bigger tank for the storage of 
moisture and a better supplied store- 
house of available plant food. 
As to the actual preparation of the 
garden plot, the home gardener is usual- 
ly at a disadvantage. As a general 
thing he can neither do the work him- 
self, personally supervise it, nor get ex- 
pert help to do it. All that can be said 
here is that the soil should be turned 
over as deeply as possible—that is, as 
deeply as its former cultivation will 
allow. Poor, ‘‘raw’’ subsoil should not 
be turned up on top of the richer sur- 
face soil to any extent. A few streaks 
and patches here and there, that will be 
thoroughly mixed in by harrowing, will 
not be any disadvantage and will help 
to “deepen” the surface soil. The turn- 
ing of the soil should be done, if possible, with a plow. No 
spading or digging is likely to do it as thoroughly, and it is 
many times as laborious. If the patch is so small or so 
situated that it must be dug by hand, see to it that it is 
turned as deeply as possible and that every inch is turned. 
It is getting more and more difficult to find a man who will 
Every garden ought to be as well planned as the one here pictured 
