8o Home Vegetable Gardening 



that will do well just as taken up, but as a rule better 



results will be obtained where the soil is made up 

 specially as follows : rotted sods two parts, old rotted 

 manure one part, and enough coarse sand added to 

 make the mixture fine and crumbly, so that, even 

 when moist, it will fall apart when pressed into a 

 ball in the hand. Such soil is best prepared by cut- 

 ting out sod, in the summer, where the grass is green 

 and thick, indicating a rich soil. Along old fences 

 or the roadside where the wash has settled will be 

 good places to get limited quantities. Those should 

 be cut with considerable soil and stacked, grassy 

 sides together, in layers in a compost pile. If the 

 season proves very dry, occasionally soak the heap 

 through. In late fall put in the cellar, or wherever 

 solid freezing will not take place, enough to serv^e 

 for spring work under glass. The amount can read- 

 ily be calculated ; soil for three sash, four inches deep, 

 for instance, would take eighteen feet or a pile 

 three feet square and two feet high. The fine ma- 

 nure (and sand, if necessary) may be added in the 

 fall or when using in the spring. Here again it may 

 seem to the amateur that unnecessary pains are 

 being taken. I can but repeat what has been sug- 

 gested all through these pages, that it will require 

 but little more work to do the thing the best way 

 as long as one is doing it at all, and the results will 

 be not only better, but practically certain — and that 



