The Springfield herald., 1913-03-21
Preparing the Garden.

Any one who has little patch OF
back yard can have vegetable gar
den this year. BY all means make the
effort 1t can not only furnish you
with delicious, fresh vegetables, but
you will get health and pleasure out of
its care.
If your soil is sandy it will produce
the early crops to great advantage. and
you can get radishes, lettuce, and sim
liar vegetables several weeks ahead of
your neighbor with a clay garden, but
the sandy soil does not stand the hot
dry weather of the summer months as
well as the clay or loan. For this
reason 1t is usually desirable to cover
very sandy plot with several inches
of barnyard manure and loan or black
muck soil to give 1t some body and
moisture retaining power This top
dressing should be evenly spread on
just before plowing In the spring and
It should be thoroughly turned under.
A loamy soil is ideal for general gar
den crops. the sandy loan being lit
tie earlier. and the clay loan little
better in the hot weather. Loan soils
do not need any other treatment than
manure, every other year, unless the
location Is too wet. II this Is the
case, either surface or tile drainage
will have to be installed in order to
secure the best results
Clay, either blue, yellow or red, Is
about the toughest proposition the gar
dener has to tackle. 1t possesses plant
food in abundance and can be made to
bear profitably, but 1t will need lot
of cultivation and treatment of various
ease. In the first place 1t must be
plowed or. spaded deeply in order to
break up the solid texture of the soil.
Large quantities of well rotted ma.
nure containing considerable straw
should be plowed under every year
and at the same time 1t will be well
to pillow under about two inches OF
sand, or sandy loan. After the last
crop has been taken off any portion OF
the rarden in the fall. SOW the vacant
ground to some fast growing cover
crop and turn 1t under Just before frost
cuts 1t down. All of these factors will
assist in loosening a heavy firm soil
allowing better penetration of air ant
water. and reducing the tendency o
the soil to form large hard clots.
Don't strip the soil from new gar
den. Turn it under by all means. as
1t will make the texture of the sol
very much better. The greater the
amount of decaying plant matter you
can incorporate in the soil. the better
will be your crop.
Plow or spade your garden as soor
as the soil is dry enough to "scour'
off the plowshare nicely. Flowing be
fore this will leave the soil in a clod
ded or puddled condition and 1t will
take couple OF years hard work tc
correct this mistake. II the soil is
heavy. With sandy or loamy soils the
time OF plowing is not SO important as
they are not liable to form clods. and
they can be plowed when much drier
than a clay The owner of the clay
patch or the muck garden, has to be
extremely careful regarding this i'm
portant feature, however.
After plowing. the treatment of all
kinds OF soil is practically the same
! Cultivate, rake or harrow the soil un'
! I'll the surface. which is known as the
seed bed, is as fine as you can possibly
get it. The finer the better for all
kinds of seed This is because the par.
ticles of soil can get into closer physi.
cal touch with the little seeds and
plant roots They hold the soil water
closer, and make their food contents
much more available for the roots.