ODDS AND ENDS 
FROM EVERYWHERE 
Making Garden Soil 
S EVERAL years ago, upon taking possession 
of a new property, I was confronted with a 
problem which every gardener must, to some extent 
and in some form, eventually meet. It was the 
problem of making good garden soil. The builders 
of the house I took, in excavating for the cellar, had 
hauled a mass of small rock and tough red clay on 
the garden; consequently, its whole surface was 
covered with a soil which could be worked with 
neither pleasure nor profit. During the first year I 
attempted to leaven the lot with lime, manure 
and some sand. But I soon found this process slow, 
difficult, tedious, expensive, and doubtful of ulti- 
mate results. What I then decided to do was to 
overlay the clay with a strata of real garden soil, 
which was not to be less than a foot or more in 
thickness; then, with the clay as a subsoil, I should 
have a real garden. But how was I to obtain the 
soil? 
A rich man would probably have had it hauled 
in; but an average gardener like myself could not 
afford that. Soil is very heavy to have hauled, 
and often the right kind is hard to obtain. 
My garden was separated into beds by stout oak 
boards; and my first step in renewing the earth of 
the garden was to raise the boards of one of these 
beds a foot or more, filling in the paths with coal 
ashes. Then I began the process of filling in the 
bed with good soil, which I made. 
All the old garden paths were carefully scraped, 
which gave me a good heap of composite ma- 
terial; then to this was added manure, then sifted 
coal ashes; then a little lime and wood ashes; sand 
that had been washed into a nearby gully; half- 
rotted sod that a neighbor, who was renewing his 
lawn, gave me. Going one day to the woods on a 
picnic, I brought back a spring-wagon load of leaf- 
mold; at another time a load of rich meadow sod 
was secured. Gradually the depth of soil on the 
bed increased. It was a little uneven; but all the 
ingredients were such that I knew would soon rot 
or dissolve or, united with the whole, would go to 
form a rich, friable loam. 
The depth of soil on this bed was increased from 
sources which had never before been considered. 
It is remarkable how much good soil can be ob- 
tained from out-of-the-way corners of almost any 
premises; from the edges of a hedge, from the mold 
of drifted leaves, from the ashes of burnt trash piles, 
and from the rotted silt deposited beside a fence. 
In a surprisingly short time, this new bed was 
finished, and another one had been begun. In due 
time, the surface of the whole garden was covered 
in this manner; and the results obtained from this 
soil have amply repaid the labor. The dimensious 
of the garden are 180x80 ft. 
Pennsylvania. Archibald Rutledge. 
Fertilizing the Garden 
T HREE controlable factors — fertile soil, good 
seed, timely cultivation — determine very largely 
the success of a garden, and must each be taken into 
account if the best crops are to be grown. Soil, 
logically, should be considered first because without 
it nothing would grow. 
Every one has noticed that some soils produce 
larger, more succulent, or better flavored vegetables 
than others. This is due more to differing amounts 
of organic and mineral food in the soil than to 
differences in soil texture, though to be sure, 
texture has much to do with retention and distri- 
bution of minerals already existing. Beyond any 
doubt a soil that is deficient in the various sub- 
stances that plants require will produce stunted and 
poorly flavored produce. Determining what plants 
need and putting these things into the soil in the form 
of fertilizers is the secret of raising delicious vege- 
tables; for not only do they grow larger but they 
make their growth in much less time, a condition 
that induces crispness, flavor, and succulency. 
Humus, which is thoroughly decomposed organic 
matter, is the first great requisite of a garden soil. 
It is not needed so much because of directly furnish- 
ing food to plant roots, but because it serves as an 
absorbent for dissolved foods already in the soil. 
Water, as it filters down through the soil, dissolves 
the various soluble organic and mineral foods and 
lodges them in the interstices and pores of the humus, 
thus storing them up against the day of plant need. 
Were humus not present these same substances would 
sink down deeper and soon be below the reach of the 
relatively short roots of garden plants. In ad- 
dition to this humus leavens the soil and permits a 
much freer circulation of air, something that is vital 
to all quick-growing garden plants. It also arrests 
water rising through the soil by capillary attraction 
and conserves it for subsequent plant use. But there 
is still another very important function of hu- 
mus especially that which is not too completely de- 
composed. In the process of further decomposition 
various organic acids are formed which react with 
insoluble minerals in the soil, slowly changing them 
to the soluble forms available for plant use. 
Barnyard manure applied to the soil not only 
furnishes the required humus but provides much 
plant food as well. To be of the most use, however, 
it must be thoroughly rotted before applying; fresh 
manure is too lumpy and strong, and vegetables 
grown from it will lack flavor and succulency. 
Besides the soil is apt to heat too much and dry out 
when rains cease. Neither is long exposed and rain- 
drenched manure the best. While it may look 
black and rich the chances are the rains have leached 
out the ammonia and other important salts. That 
which has been stored under dry sheds and has later 
been rotted according to directions is the best. 
Composting or rotting should be finished some 
time before the garden is to be plowed or spaded. To 
do this the manure should be thoroughly moistened 
and piled into a rounded, compact mass. In a few 
days it will begin to heat and must be turned to keep 
it from firing or turning white. At such times it 
should be re- wetted. Two weeks’ treatment of this 
kind will generally reduce the mass to a well rotted 
condition. It should now be scattered uniformly 
over the garden and plowed or spaded under imme- 
diately to keep the ammonia vapors from escaping. 
There is ordinarily no danger of applying too much, 
for experienced gardeners frequently apply 100 tons 
to an acre. Unless the soil is much impoverished, 
five large loads for a garden 40 by 100 feet is ordinar- 
ily about the right amount. Some gardeners apply 
the compost to the top of the soil and get good re- 
sults; it is generally believed, however, that it is best 
to plow the manure under for then it is placed where 
plant roots can more easily obtain the food con- 
tained in it. 
Along with manure there should be applied some 
form of lime to neutralize the excess of organic acids 
formed from the decomposition of the humus. 
Crushed limestone is the best, though slacked lime 
may be used to advantage when limestone is not 
available. Too much of the latter is apt to burn the 
soil, however, and must be applied sparingly. 
Limestone does not do any harm unless applied in 
ridiculous quantity. A ton of either to an acre is an 
abundance. For a garden of the size previously 
mentioned a barrel of slacked lime is just about right. 
Either form should be scattered over the surface 
uniformly in order that it may mix with all parts of 
the soil. It does not matter much whether applied 
before or after plowing for subsequent cultivation 
will work it into the soil anyway. Not only does 
the lime sweeten the soil but it contributes necessary 
mineral matter to such vegetables as cauliflower, 
celery, lettuce, turnips, and cabbage. 
Out of the sixteen chemical elements that enter 
into the composition of plant tissues twelve are 
supplied wholly from the soil, the remaining ones 
coming directly or indirectly from the air. Fortu- 
nately these twelve constitute a very small part of 
the plant, not over 3 or 4 per cent, in most cases. 
£04 
Notwithstanding this small amount they are very 
important, for the plant must have its supply of 
them or growth ceases. Most of these elements are 
contained in the soil in such abundance that there 
need be little concern as to their holding out. Two, 
however — potassium and phosphorus — do not exist 
in large amount; and if to these two nitrogen, a semi- 
earth element, is added, we have the three elements 
that plants imperatively demand, and an absence of 
which always causes plants to languish. Strong, 
unbleached manure usually furnishes an abundance 
of these elements; however, it is often advisable to 
supply additional quantities in the form of com- 
mercial fertilizers. In such form they become quickly 
available to the plants, and for that reason lend them- 
selves to fertilization when manure is not readily 
obtainable or is of poor quality. Such fertilizer is 
very convenient for the individual with a small 
back garden who does not wish to be bothered with 
manure. Many very successful gardeners practice 
mixing commercial fertilizer with manure, claiming 
that they obtain thereby much better results. 
The following plant-food mixture has been found 
to give splendid results with thegeneralgarden. The 
amounts have been figured for a garden 40 by 100 
feet in size, unmixed with manure. If manure is 
used one-half as much will be enough. For gardens 
larger or smaller than the above take a proportionate 
amount: 
Sodium nitrate, 25 pounds; ammonium sulphate, 
10 pounds; tankage, 35 pounds; rock phosphate, go 
pounds; potassium chloride, 20 pounds. 
The commercial (impure) forms should be pur- 
chased. The above amount ought not to cost more 
than $5.00. including freight from the supply house. 
The best results are obtained by scattering the 
fertilizer uniformly over the surface of the plowed or 
spaded ground and working it into the soil with 
harrow or rake. Subsequent rains will dissolve the 
real food parts and carry them down where the roots 
are. 
Iowa. E. V. Laughlin. 
Delphinium “Black Disease” 
AS AN amateur gardener, my delphiniums 
/i. have for years been my pride. Beginning 
with the old standard sorts, my success was so 
gratifying that I commenced growing the newer, 
finer, named varieties. My first bed of the stand- 
ard kinds had in it ninety small plants to start 
with. 
As it was my first experience I did not notice 
the foliage the first year they bloomed. The seed- 
lings, having been set out in August of the season 
before and bloomed a small stalk to each plant, 
grew finely, wintered over very well, and really 
made a very creditable show the second summer. 
The third summer, the “black” disease began 
to show quite early in the spring and, knowing 
nothing better to do than destroy the diseased 
plants — much as I hated to do it — I burned them 
as fast as the disease appeared. 
By fall the bed was completely ruined. The 
second crop of flowers had not shown a single spike 
of unaffected bloom. The bed where the plants 
were had several years before been heavily manured, 
and thinking this the cause of the trouble, I con- 
signed every plant in the bed to the fire. 
This “black” disease in delphiniums has been a 
great drawback to their cultivation by amateurs. 
A good bed or border of sturdy, thrifty plants may 
go on for several years without showing a sign of 
the blight, until suddenly, some smiling June 
morning, what were to be beautiful tall flower 
spikes appear twisted into short stubby heads. 
The first appearance of the trouble is not shown 
in the flower stalks, but in the foliage of the plant. 
A few leaves will appear, on an otherwise perfect 
plant, in a twisted distorted form, much as if 
when small they had been pinched in and failed 
to straighten out again. 
