OFTHEDAHLIA 29 
If your garden is dug instead of plowed so much the 
better. It is a rare plowman that goes down uniformly 
six inches, rarer still the man and the team of horses 
that will put the plow in seven inches. Yet dahlias 
require a deeply tilled soil. To the average amateur 
gardener to "spade up the garden" is a simple though 
muscle-tiring task. Probably, however, it will be that 
part of your gardening joys and duties that is done 
worse than any other. Hardly ever is a garden dug 
deep enough. It should never be dug less deep than 
the full depth of fork, or spade, or shovel — one spit the 
English gardeners call it. 
If your garden is small, and if you really desire the 
finest possible flowers (and this applies not only to 
dahlias but to all other deeply growing plants), remove 
the top soil one spit, and then dig the subsoil another 
spit, letting in air to the hard, compacted soil, and 
return the top soil. This is not so difficult a task. 
Remove two square yards or so of top soil, putting it 
in a pile. Then dig the uncovered subsoil, without 
throwing it out. Start digging a fresh area, throwing 
the top soil upon the spaded subsoil section, and so on. 
When through throw your first pile of top soil into the 
last hole, and the work is done. If you have litter and 
miscellaneous compost to spare it can be dug into the 
subsoil, reserving the best compost for the top soil layen 
Thus you lighten up the subsoil, allow the air to mix 
with it, and the litter you incorporate increases its 
water holding capacity, making more constant and less 
