The Green Forest tribune., 1913-03-21
Preparinu the Garden.

Any one who has a little patch of back yard can have vegetable gar den ehis year. By all means make the effort. It 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 ilar.yegetables several weeks ahead of your neighbor with clay garden, but the sandy soil does not stand the hot dry weather of the summer months as we'll as the clay or loam. For this reason it is usually desirable to cover very sandy plot with several inches of barnyard manure and loam or black muck soil to give 1t some body and moisture retaining power. This top dressing should be evenly spread on just before blowing in the spring and it should be thoroughly turned under.
 A loamy soil is ideal for general gar den crops, the sandy loam being lit- tie earlier, and the clay loam little better h the hot weather. Loam soils do not need any other treatment than manure, every other year. unless the location is too wet If 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. It possesses plant food in abundance and can be made to bear prof1tably, but 1t will need lot of cultivation and treatment of various kinds before 1t can be handled with ease. Tn the first place it must be plowed or spaded deeply in order to break up the solid texture of the soil. Large quantities of well routed ma nure containing considerable straw should be plowed under every year, and at the same time 1t will be we'll to blow under about two inches of sand, or sandy loam. After the last crop has been taken off any portion of the garden 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 heavy firm soil, allowing better penetration of air and water, and reducing the tendency of the soil to form large hard clots.
 Don't strip the soil from new gar den. Turn 1t under by all means, as 1t will make the texture of the soil very much better. The greater the amount of decaying plant matter you can incorporate in the soil. the better will be your crop.
 Flow or spade your garden as soon as the soil is dry enough to SCOUT off the plowshare nicely. Flowing be- fore this will leave the soil in clod- ded or puddled condition and 1t will take couple of years hard work to correct this mistake, If the soil is heavy. With sandy or loamy soils the time of blowing 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. .tn
 After blowing, the treatment of all kinds of soil is practically the same Cultivate, rake or harrow the soil un- til 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.