24 
Tips on How 
to Make Garden Soil 
Produce Food 
by E. kh. Walrath 
Ed Walrath has charge of the Eastern States Sols 
Laboratory and knows his onions about plant food. 
WE ARE WHAT we eat — so the farm 
garden should have first priority on 
land, labor, supplies, and gray mat- 
ter. Not alone how much, but how 
good, should be the rule in vegetable 
gardening, even if the cash crops, the 
forage and livestock get less atten- 
tion. This will assure that the best 
crop (farm folks) fares the best! 
Soils for the farm garden should be 
so productive, so deep, so rich in 
humus, so well supplied with lime 
and minerals, that they could produce 
a year’s food without any fertilizer 
if it had to be done. How few are that 
fertile! 
This preface is a plea for deliberate 
planning of site, fertilization and 
management of what can be the most 
valuable land on the farm — the 
farm garden. 
How is the soil and air drainage? One 
kind of insurance against the weather 
is a deep, well-drained soil, located 
so the cold air of early frosts will 
drain to lower land. No pockets, 
please, for water or air, no hardpans, 
no gravel underneath in the second 
farm — the subsoil. If the soil below 
plow depth is mottled and streaked, 
or so open that rainfall can go 
through about as fast as it falls, get 
another site. For a family garden, 
select the best soil. 
How is the calcium? The quality of 
the farm family’s bones and teeth and 
the efficiency of the homegrown and 
purchased fertilizer used will depend 
very much on there being enough 
calcium in the soils and plants. With- 
out enough calcium certain plants 
may develop an abnormal composi- 
tion; for example, spinach with a low 
calcium content may be high in ox- 
alic acid. The heavy rainfall of 1945 
caused lots of calcium to leach out of 
our soils, conservatively estimated at 
equivalent to 500 pounds of ground 
limestone per acre. 
Don’t guess — test! As soon as the 
frost is out of the ground have your 
garden soils, topsoil and subsoil 
tested for lime requirements. Get 
these samples to your county agent, 
experiment station or your Eastern 
States soils laboratory before the 
spring rush begins. Unless the subsoil 
is well supplied with calcium, plow 
down half of the lime. It can go on 
with the manure, 
If subsoil acidity is less than 
pH 5.0, mix two parts of lime and 
one part of Superphosphate, and put 
this mixture on the plow sole of each 
furrow at the rate of one-and-one-half 
tons per acre, or seven pounds per 100 
feet of 12-inch furrow. Then after 
plowing, lime as recommended for 
the topsoil. 
If it is found by test that the garden 
soils are overlimed, and many are in 
relation to other nutrients, then fol- 
low recommendations of the test 
report. 
What fertilizer for the farm garden? 
Home-produced fertilizer from the 
barnyard and sods should be the basis 
of the farm garden fertilizer to main- 
tain humus and furnish nutrients. 
Often, however, an unbalanced con- 
dition results from using too much 
manure; and this is especially true 
with poultry manure. Too much ni- 
trogen in relation to phosphorus and 
potash causes a soft, rank type of leaf 
growth at the expense of fruit and 
root. Poultry manure from the pit or 
roosts is similar in composition and 
values to organic fertilizers, such as 
cottonseed meal. So as not to apply 
too much, equal amounts of such 
poultry manure may well be loaded 
in the spreaders with alternate layers 
of stable manure. Spread the mixed 
manure at not more than eight tons 
per acre, or four to six tons of poul- 
try manure, or 15 tons of stable | 
manure. 
To balance the low phosphoric acid 
content of manures, reinforce the sta- 
ble manure with 20% Superphosphate 
at a pound per day in the stable. For 
clear poultry or mixed poultry and 
stable manures, a good practice is to 
apply 150 to 200 pounds of Eastern 
States 0-20-20, or the equivalent in 
Superphosphate and Muriate of Potash 
evenly over each ton of manure in 
the spreader. Those interested in more 
detailed information on the use of 
poultry manure should get a copy of 
Pennsylvania Experiment Station 
Bulletin No. 469, “‘ Production, Com- 
position and Value of Poultry Ma- 
nure. 
All poultry manure should be 
worked into the soil well ahead of 
seeding or transplanting. Composted 
or rotted manure may well be spread 
after plowing. 
What chemical fertilizer for the farm 
garden? Regular farm crop fertilizers 
ate entirely satisfactory for farm 
gardens to supplement the fertility 
teleased by sods, manure and weath- 
ering. 
This general program is recom- 
mended: 
Where reinforced manure is not 
used, broadcast and plow down 
8-24-8 or )-20-10 at 500 pounds per 
