66 
House & Garden 
SPAN-UMBRIAN 
The New 
Berkey & Gay Design 
I N Span-Umbrian, Berkey & Gay have cre¬ 
ated the style which is peculiarly well 
adapted to the home of today. 
The splendid proportions of this furniture fit 
it admirably for modern rooms, while the won¬ 
derful carving and the wine-dark mellow tone 
of the wood meet modern ideals of beauty and 
distinction. But you will find that Span-Um- 
brian’s greatest charm is its homelikeness—that 
lovable, indefinable quality which makes this 
furniture a cherished part of your home and of 
your life. 
To learn about this furniture’s rich historical back¬ 
ground, send 25c for “The Story of Span- 
Umbrian Furniture.” If the best furniture 
shop near you does not have this furniture, 
write us and we will gladly tell you where 
you can find it. Berkey & Gay Furniture 
Company, 186 Monroe Avenue, Grand 
Rapids, Michigan. 
The fine proportions, no 
less than the exquisite 
Spanish carving and trac¬ 
ery designs, make this table 
a beautiful piece of furni¬ 
ture that would adorn any 
home 
This aristocratic 
Spanish chair is 
bold of line and 
interestingly de¬ 
signed. The seat is 
of rush, the back 
of woven cane 
Garden Soils, Good and Otherwise 
(Continued from page 31) 
fledged chemist’s laboratory to find out 
what you want to know. But that is 
not necessary. A few simple, home¬ 
made tests and some intelligent observa¬ 
tion on the ground will enable you to 
judge pretty accurately as to each of 
these four things. To determine what 
plant foods are needed, proceed as fol¬ 
lows : 
Take five or six potfuls of the soil and 
in each plant a few kernels of corn, 
beans, peas or any other quick growing 
vegetable, first mixing with soil for the 
different pots the following materials: 
to the first add nothing; to the second, 
a quarter of a teaspoonful of acid phos¬ 
phate ; to the fourth, a quarter teaspoon¬ 
ful of muriate or sulphate of potash, or 
if that is not obtainable, a teaspoonful of 
wood ashes. Further combinations of 
each two, and of all three of these, will 
make the experiment more complete. 
Each of these pots should, of course, be 
carefully labeled; the soil in all should 
be alike; and they should be given the 
same treatment. The resulting growth 
will indicate which, if any, of the three 
chief plant foods—nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, and potash—is most needed by 
your soil. 
This simple test is by no means a 
scientific experiment, but it will serve 
very well as a guide in the right direc¬ 
tion in the treatment of your soil. In 
addition to this test send a sample of 
your soil to your State Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, requesting an analysis and any Sug¬ 
gestions they may give as to what to 
apply to get the best vegetable crops. 
A careful observation of the growth 
of plants in your garden will indicate 
what it may require in the way of plant 
foods. A weak growth, lacking in healthy 
green color as the plants start, would 
imply a lack of nitrogen. Lack of pot¬ 
ash is sometimes shown by failure of 
the crops, especially of grains or legumes, 
to mature normal, plump grains or seeds. 
Weak stems and poor bloom, an ap¬ 
parent lack of strength to “carry on” 
after a good start, may be due to in¬ 
sufficient phosphoric acid in the soil. 
All these things may serve as guides to 
the gardener; but they are not con¬ 
clusive proofs, for there are too many 
other factors affecting the results. 
Acidity and Humus 
The second test—that for acid soil— 
is very simple. At any drug store you 
can get a bottle of blue litmus paper. 
Place a strip of this in the soil, which 
should be moist enough to dampen the 
paper, and if the soil is acid you will get 
a reaction that will turn the paper pink 
or red, the degree of change in the color 
of the paper indicating the degree of 
acidity. This test is not infallible, but 
will answer the purpose under most 
conditions. If sorrel grows freely in 
your ground, and clover does not, that 
will be another indication that the soil 
is acid. 
The more humus there is in your soil, 
the more water it will absorb before the 
water begins to run through it. Plain 
sand will take up only about 10 per cent 
of water, while muck soil will absorb 
as much as 250. If you want to test 
your soil, take a sample and get it air 
dry; weigh it; add as much water as it 
will absorb; and weigh it again. The 
increase in weight should be at least 30 
per cent; and preferably considerably 
more than that. If the soil in your 
garden remains wet and sticky for a 
long time after a rain, instead of break¬ 
ing and crumbling readily when it is 
taken up in the hand, the chances are 
that it is deficient in humus. 
The productive capacity of soils de¬ 
pends to a great extent on the presence 
of several kinds of bacteria in the soil 
which are favorable to the various 
processes of growth. The average gar¬ 
dener is probably familiar with the fact 
that the leguminous plants, such as clov¬ 
er, beans and peas, will not grow unless 
their particular choice of “root bugs,” 
which have the power of storing nitrogen 
gathered from the air, are present. In 
other words, the soil bacteria, while not 
plant food, are nevertheless a direct fac¬ 
tor in the garden’s success. To see 
whether or not beans grow as they 
should in your garden, try a pot of 
plants with plain seed, and another un¬ 
der the same condition with innoculated 
seed. The inoculation process is sim¬ 
ple. If it shows marked results on beans, 
it is probable that inoculation on other 
things would also pay, as the conditions 
favorable for the development of one 
variety of these gardener’s underground 
assistants are also adapted to others. 
The problem remaining, so far as 
practical results are concerned, is how to 
add to your garden soil the things which 
will make up for the deficiencies these 
various tests may have revealed. 
Plant Foods 
Take first the matter of plant foods. 
The standard source of getting these has 
long been the manure pile. But with 
the universal use of automobiles, the 
manure pile is not so available as for¬ 
merly. In its place are the commercial 
fertilizers. To use them most economic¬ 
ally only those things which the soil test 
and soil analysis show to be needed 
should be applied. But for small gar¬ 
dens it is usually more convenient to 
buy a complete ready-mixed fertilizer; 
the potash situation this year may make 
it necessary to get one with nitrogen and 
phosphoric acid only, as potash is prac¬ 
tically out of the market. By no means 
get a cheap fertilizer—the more you have 
to pay for it per bag, as a rule, the 
cheaper the actual plant food contained 
in it will be. Apply the complete fer¬ 
tilizer broadcast before raking or har¬ 
rowing, as long before planting as pos¬ 
sible, using four or five pounds for each 
100 square feet of surface. On many 
soils, and especially those of a muck 
origin, acid phosphate alone will give 
excellent results. 
Most soils, unless they have had an 
application of lime recently, will be 
found to be acid. The corrective for 
this condition is lime. The most con¬ 
venient form in -which to apply this is 
raw ground limestone. A very generous 
application of wood ashes will contain 
enough lime to keep the soil sweet. 
Burnt lime and “agricultural lime” may 
be used in place of the ground stone. 
Of either, six to ten pounds per 100 
square feet, according to the degree of 
acidity, will be none too much. 
The deficit of humus in the soil is 
not so easily remedied. Such a condi¬ 
tion usually implies that the ground has 
been overworked or neglected for a num¬ 
ber of years. Using all the manure pos¬ 
sible, planting some quick growing crop 
to turn under, and starting a compost 
heap where everything that will decay 
can be saved up, will help. If the quick¬ 
est results are wanted, the prepared com¬ 
mercial humus, which is now extensively 
advertised, may be utilized; and where 
manure is not to be had, it will have to 
form a substitute. The best grades of 
this material have considerable value as 
plant food, as well. 
Increasing the bacteria in the soil is 
also a process of building up that may 
take some time. Manure is one of the 
best agencies for this purpose; some of 
the humus products contain the desired 
bacteria in large quantities, so that when 
applied they inoculate the garden soil, 
and continue to increase as long as other 
conditions, such as a non-acid soil, are 
present. Special inoculants for dif¬ 
ferent crops may be obtained at slight 
expense, and there is little trouble in¬ 
volved in using them; often they mean 
all the difference between success and 
failure, especially on new soil. 
(Continued on page 68) 
