won't do any harm. It contains plant 

 food but usually in a form that is not 

 available until sunshine, rain and wind 

 have acted on it for a few years. You 

 can't afford to wait, so leave the sub- 

 soil where it is; it will hold water for 

 your plants next summer. 



Make Haste Slowly: 



No matter what kind of soil you have 

 in your g^arden it must not be vrorked 

 Tvhen it is wet. If it is it will be 

 hard, lumpy and wholly intractable 

 all season. You will lose and not g-ain 

 by working- soil before it is fit to work. 



When is it fit? There is no hard 

 and fast rule but here is a simple test 

 that will answer all practical purposes. 



Turn up a spadeful of soil, g-rab a 

 handful and squeeze it. If it retains 

 the shape of your hand and the finger 

 marks, and is smooth and pasty-like 

 to the touch, it is not fit. If you can- 

 not squeeze the mass lightly without 

 breaking it, if it crumbles in your 

 hand, go ahead, there is no time to 

 lose. Such a rough and ready, offhand 

 solution of so difficult a problem as 

 this requires the application of common 

 sense along with it but the writer feels 

 perfectly safe in leaving it in just this 

 way. 



First Aids to the Gardener: 



(1) If your garden is anywhere but 

 on a side hill you can probably advance 

 by several days the time when it will 

 be fit to work by la little dig-g-ing and 

 ditching so as to carry off the surface 

 water. This should be done as soon 

 as the frost is out of the ground. 



(2) Instead of spading or plowing 

 the garden before it is fit, it is usually 

 possible to find an odd corner some- 

 where on the premises, even if only 

 2x4 feet, that is higher and drier than 

 the garden. Maybe it is the flower bed 



(3) 



