3 82 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 1906 



Rug-making After the Manner of Colonial Times 



_ace-ma 



king 



Often for their wedding wardrobe (the word trousseau was 

 not then used) these were of white silk or imported thread, 

 and if the lover happened to be a sailor boy, a shell pattern 

 was used. A rose pattern was another favorite, or a drop 

 stitch. There is something fascinating about knitting and it 

 takes some skill to shape a stocking properly. 



This can never become a paying industry commercially, 



as the machines turn out such good work; yet a girl while 

 knitting is most attractive and Cupid is often a good pay- 

 master though he uses needles instead of darts as a medium 

 of exchange. Besides it is quite the fashion to knit golf 

 stockings of coarse yarn for one's best beloved. Physicians 

 often prescribe knitting to relieve nervous patients, so it 

 can not be said that this handicraft is entirely lapsed. 



The Poisons of Soils 



I CONSIDERABLE evidence has been ac- 

 cumulated during recent years to show that 

 the cause of the failure of some soils to 

 produce satisfactory crops may be ascribed 

 to unfavorable conditions produced in the 

 soils by the plants themselves. It is thought 

 that during the growth of the plant certain unknown organic 

 substances are given off which, when they accumulate in the 

 soil to any extent, are harmful to the further growth of 

 plants of the kind that produced them. It is possible that 

 some of the benefits known to arise from systematic crop 

 rotation may be explained on this basis. These harmful sub- 

 stances seem to be disposed of rapidly by certain soils, us- 

 ually those in which organic matter is readily converted into 

 humus. Other soils, usually marked by a lack of the brown 

 carbonized organic matter, do not seem to possess this prop- 

 erty of removing harmful products to such a degree. This 

 idea is in accord with common experience, that dark-colored 

 soils, well filled with organic matter, are very productive. 



In connection with the study of these poisonous organic 

 productions, it has been found that they may be destroyed 

 or at least rendered harmless in a variety of ways. Barn- 



yard manure or decaying organic matter, such as a green 

 crop of rye or cowpeas, turned under, has a very marked 

 effect in freeing the soil from them. Almost all of the com- 

 mon commercial fertilizing materials act more or less in the 

 same way. Commercial fertilizers for soil improvement 

 have, therefore, another value besides adding plant food. 

 Thorough and complete airing of the soil will often destroy 

 or overcome these poisonous substances. The beneficial ef- 

 fects of plowing and of thorough surface tillage are thus 

 explained, in part at least, on the basis of the thorough 

 aeration secured. When the same crop is not grown oftener 

 than every three or four years on the same land the in- 

 jurious substances a crop throws off seem to have time to 

 disappear before the same crop is grown again; hence the 

 benefit from crop rotation. When the soil is well supplied 

 with humus there is seldom any trouble from this source, 

 and the same crop may be grown year after year with good 

 yields, though continuous cultivation of the same crop may 

 invite injury from certain insects and fungous diseases which 

 live over in the soil or in the remains of the crop and offer 

 injuries to the soil against which it is not always possible to 

 provide remedies. 



