30 
House & Garden 
A simple test for soil acidity may be made 
with blue litmus paper. Dampen the 
soil, and if it is acid the paper will change 
to a reddish color 
T HE soil is the foundation of gardening. 
The fully competent gardener must under¬ 
stand soils as well as the cultural requirements 
of the various vegetables which he attempts 
to grow. Most gardeners are inclined to neg¬ 
lect this side of the gentle art of growing 
things, as being too technical and as requiring 
too expert knowledge for them to attempt to 
become really familiar with it. Soil chem¬ 
istry,” bacteria that look as though they had 
been invented in Russia and then translated 
into German, talk about hydrostatics and hy¬ 
groscopic moisture in the soil, and all that sort 
of thing, are enough to discourage the lay¬ 
man from trying to find the time to pursue 
the subject further. As a matter of fact, how¬ 
ever, the whole question of the part played 
by the soil in the growing of successful gar¬ 
dens is based upon commonly known princi¬ 
ples and ordinary “horse sense.” 
In the first place, then, the soil serves a 
double function. First, it is in itself a source 
of plant food which is required to support 
plant growth. Second, it serves as a medium 
or container in which we can place the raw 
material—plant food, moisture, air, and so 
forth—on which plant growth may be manu¬ 
factured. The soil, to express it in another 
way, is at once the manger and the food with¬ 
in the manger. 
GARDEN SOILS, GOOD AND 
OTHERWISE 
The Various Chemical and Physical Qualities JJ huh 
Affect Plant Growth, and How the Ideal May Be 
Approached—Simple Tests Anyone Can Make 
F. F. ROCKWELL 
Photographs by G. W. Harting 
r a test the physical consistency of the soil, dry a small quantity, weight it add as 
nuch water as it will absorb, and weigh again. The increase m weight should 
1 c+ XC\0/^- - 7 
roinulA hp hp.t.t.p.r 
The water absorbing capacity of soil is determined chiefly by the size of the soil 
particles. From left to right: coarse sand, fine sand, silt and clay 
rTT 11 
Soil Character and Productiveness 
The soils to be found, even in a compara¬ 
tively small area, differ so much from each 
other that one cannot profitably be used for 
gardening purposes, while others will grow 
fairly good crops of vegetables with no atten¬ 
tion further than planting and cultivating 
them. On the whole, however, the beginner 
is rather apt to exaggerate in his own mind 
the importance of the natural adaptability for 
gardening purposes of the soil at his disposal. 
All but the very poorest of soils under the 
most adverse conditions may be made to give 
fairly satisfactory results without any pro¬ 
hibitive outlay of money or work. And only 
the very best of soils, which are just as seldom 
encountered, will give satisfactory results with¬ 
out considerable attention on the part of the 
gardener. 
Soils differ from each other in several ways. 
In the first place, they differ as to origin; some 
come from worn, disintegrated rocks, others 
from the gradual accumulation of decayed vege¬ 
table matter. In ordinary farm lands, we speak 
of soils as being clay, loam, sand or muck. 
Anyone knows, in a general way, what the 
differences between these are. It is seldom 
that any of these are found in unadulterated 
form where one is likely to have gardening to 
do. Let me explain, briefly, the advantages 
and disadvantages possessed by each, so far as 
farming or gardening is concerned. 
In a clay soil—it may be “red” or “blue,” 
“white” or “black”—the soil particles are ex¬ 
tremely fine. This in itself is a very desirable 
thing theoretically, since the smaller the soil 
particles are the more thoroughly is the plant 
food they may contain exposed for use by the 
roots of the growing crop. As a matter of fact, 
however, pure clay soils when wet cannot be 
worked, and contain such a high percentage 
of water that the growth is reduced to a mini- 
