best to write to your agricultural experiment station and get its 
report on fertilizers, so that you can be sure of the analysis of the 
sort you expect to use. If sorrel grows very freely in your 
garden you will find that it needs lime. If you test it with litmus 
paper, a sheet of which can he bought at any drug store for a few 
pennies, and you get a “reaction” (the 
blue paper turning red) that will be a 
pretty sure indication that your soil 
needs liming. It is best to apply lime 
during the fall, so that it will have a 
chance to act during the winter and 
early spring, hut the ground raw 
limestone can be applied immediately 
before planting. 
Then there is the mechanical condi¬ 
tion of the soil. As the plant food has 
to be acted upon by the soil-moisture 
before it becomes available to the 
plant, the more finely the soil is 
broken up and pulverized, the more 
accessible the particles of plant food 
become to the feeding root systems of 
the plant and the soil moisture re¬ 
quired to convert the plant food into 
“soups” that the roots can drink up. 
Hence the importance of thorough 
preparation (plowing, harrowing, etc., 
to pulverize the soil thoroughly), both 
before planting and during growth. 
The result of cultivation in the latter 
case, also, is to conserve the moisture 
in the soil and to obtain a free admis¬ 
sion of the air, both of which are 
necessary to convert unavailable into 
available plant food, and to enable the 
root systems to assimilate the feast 
that is spread for them. 
As regards the physical condition 
of the soil, its substance should be such 
as to guarantee the germination of seeds. It must be dry and 
warm enough, and its structure such as to allow a supply of air 
and moisture. In other words, it must be spongy, as well as 
fertile. There are certain outside characteristics which in¬ 
dicate an inferior condition. A farmer may judge soil as fertile 
in which tulip trees and black oaks have grown, while he regards 
as unfavorable soil in which red oak, white pine and birch abound. 
While the locust grove gives soil fertility (for locusts are legumes).- 
one would not select a tree-grown place for the site of a garden. 
Clover, alfalfa and other leguminous crops add the chemical nitro¬ 
gen which is valuable to crops. If there is a scanty growth of 
weeds on a neglected tract of land, it indicates that the soil is 
lacking fertility. It will require fertilizer to restore it. Clay is 
unfavorable because its fine, close 
particles do not allow the passage of 
air or the easy entrance of roots. Sand 
is unfavorable, because it allows 
evaporation of water. A combina¬ 
tion of these two particles — in other 
words, what is known as loam—makes 
the desirable soil. 
The same differences of chemical 
and mechanical condition are true as 
to manures and natural and chemical 
fertilizers, as well as of soil. It is its 
mechanical condition, for instance, 
which makes fine, short manure more 
“available" than rough, lumpy ma¬ 
nure ; or bone-flour more available 
than coarse bone. It is a difference in 
chemical condition which makes well 
rotted manure more available than 
green or iresn manure; or the nitro¬ 
gen in nitrate of soda more available 
than that in tankage. 
So the theory of manuring, put 
briefly, is this: To find out what, if 
anything, the soil lacks to produce a 
maximum crop, as far as plant-foods 
are concerned ; and to make up these 
deficiencies by adding plant-food (in 
some of the various available forms) 
to the soil; and to see to it that the 
plant-food already in the soil is made 
available by keeping the soil sweet, 
and by thorough cultivation. 
This is the whole thing in a nut¬ 
shell—as far as the theory goes. The difficult part of the prob¬ 
lem, however, is to find out how to put it into practical use most 
effectually. 
From what has been said, we can realize that there are four 
essential things to keep in mind and try to supply to the garden 
which we hope to make a successful one — a soil made rich, first 
by being well prepared mechanically; second, made and kept 
(Continued on page 146) 
Many plant roots cover a considerable area, but their food must 
be in such form that it is readily assimilated 
Poor soil in which there is too great a proportion of clay is apt to form hard lumps 
not easily penetrated by roots 
The light, friable soil affords ready access to the plant roots in their constant search 
for nutriment 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 1914 
