\ GARDEN SOILS AND GARDEN 

 ^ MAKING 



^ ^ Frederic Cranefield, Secretary 

 ^ State Horticultural Society 



The soils expert groups soils, with 

 fine distinctions, into many classes. 

 The farmer and the gardener call them 

 "lig-ht" or "heavy", "rich" or "poor", 

 ''warm" or "cold" soils and make a 

 "base hit" every time. 



In the languag-e of the farmer a light 

 soil is one containing more sand than 

 clay. It is easily worked either in 

 spring or summer, and is also a warm 

 soil for it absorbs heat more readily 

 than a clay soil. But as a rule, sandy 

 soils are lower in plant food elements 

 than are the heavier soils. 



The heavy soil is one having more 

 clay than sand and in proportion as the 

 clay predominates is it heavy and cold, 

 but it usually contains abundant plant 

 food. 



It is plain, then, that an ideal garden 

 soil is one that is neither very light 

 nor very heavy. It does not follow, 

 however, that we should fail to have a 

 g-arden even if the ideal soil is not 

 available. Some very excellent gar- 

 dens have been made on very unprom- 

 ising sites. It's largely a matter of 

 hard work. 



Don't Disturb Much Subsoil: 



Below the 4 to 8 inches of mellow, 

 usually black, surface soil of tilled land 

 lies a different kind of soil called the 

 subsoil. It is not mellow because it 

 has probably not been stirred for at 

 least ten thousand years. It is usually 

 red clay. Sometimes it is blue clay. 

 Whatever its color, gardeners should 

 leave it undisturbed and not turn much 

 of it up on the surface of the garden 

 by too deep spading. An inch or two 



^. Of B. 



AUG 4 



I9I9 



