January, 1919 
19 
A space measuring forty-five by fifty 
feet ought to yield fifteen bushels of 
potatoes. Gardening costume by Best 
Plan your garden liber¬ 
ally. Make it a garden 
of plenty—canning will 
take care of any surplus 
The kitchen garden is 
a business proposition. 
Records should be 
kept of cost, yield, etc. 
you twenty dollars in in¬ 
creased yield, because of 
the personal pride that un¬ 
consciously leads us up to 
higher standards. So make 
your garden a gladsome 
spot where you can take 
your friends with some de¬ 
gree of pride. 
The old English estates 
which are today so beauti¬ 
ful with plant life reflect 
the interest in economic 
gardening. Their vegetable 
gardens were always fea¬ 
tured ; brick walls with 
their covering of choice 
fruits, hedges that were the acme of perfection, 
flower borders that were noticeable because of 
their completeness, plantings of all kinds that 
were selected by reason of their suitability. 
That is the proper method whereby to accom¬ 
plish any project; start out with a definite pur¬ 
pose and see it through. 
Selecting the Site 
Far too little consideration is given the se¬ 
lection of site for the family garden. The 
usual procedure is to choose a place for the 
roses, then for a few fruit trees, then for the 
chickens and various other heirlooms of the 
suburbanite. What is left, if any, is “our 
garden”. Soil conditions and drainage are 
not given even a passing thought. Shade, too, 
is often overlooked; why, we never gave those 
large trees a thought, because they had no 
leaves when we laid out our garden! Or, after 
the garden was well established too close to our 
south boundary line, that grouchy neighbor 
erected his garage so that it shades our rows. 
Conditions of all kinds which have a direct 
bearing on the utility of the garden should be 
studied carefully when selecting a site. Keep 
far enough from your sputh line so that you 
can be unconcerned with the developments of 
your neighbor. If you have the necessary lati¬ 
tude take a spade and go over your premises 
carefully testing the soil. Dig down to deter¬ 
mine where is the greatest depth of top soil. 
Best is a spot where the sub¬ 
soil is open and porous. 
Avoid sites where the un¬ 
derneath strata is a heavy, 
impregnable hardpan. If 
there are grades to consider 
do not locate your garden 
at the lowest point, for, 
while water is very neces¬ 
sary to the health of plants, 
an excess of it is an evil 
that cannot be overcome 
without considerable ex¬ 
pense. Ground that slopes 
gently to the south is ideal. 
After you have selected 
the ground, make the gar¬ 
den one of the features of your place. Plan 
your grounds with the garden as the pivot. 
Soil Tests 
Plants do not exist upon the soil itself, but 
upon the soluble elements that are retained in 
it. These elements must be properly balanced 
for the garden to be productive; an excess or 
deficit of certain chemical parts is undesirable. 
It is for this reason that we feed the soil, plac¬ 
ing therein elements that are particularly lack¬ 
ing. In every case these must be soluble to be 
of any value in the creation of growth. All 
soils contain a certain amount of natural fer¬ 
tility that can be made available for the plants 
by deep and constant working which admits 
the air to the lower strata. 
The texture of the soil has an important 
bearing on its productiveness; soils that are 
very heavy and will not produce satisfactorily 
contain an excess of water but do not admit 
enough air to neutralize the chemicals. The 
reason for this is that the soil particles are 
exceedingly small and lie so compactly as to 
exclude air. Light, sandy soils contain abun¬ 
dance of air but do not retain water, by virtue 
of the soil particles being larger. 
A simple test can be made to determine the 
soil texture by taking a small quantity and 
squeezing it in the hand. It should, if prop¬ 
erly balanced, remain a perfect mold of the 
{Continued on page 50) 
A fifty-foot row of beans will pro¬ 
duce 100 pints if the soil is right and 
conditions favorable. With bush 
beans this means 5,000 pods 
On the left, soil too light; at the 
right, too heavy. See text of this 
article for details 
The texture of this soil is good. It 
is sufficiently cohesive, yet crumbles 
under pressure 
