Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1917-09-05
PREP AIRING THE GARDEN
FOR WINTER

4N&A4 xAAN3AvO LII O1AAAO1AAV
FOR WINTER
Work You Can Do and Crops You Can
Plant Now to Save and Increase the
Plant Food in your Garden to Get
Better Yields Next Year.
By f. F. Rockwell.
Copyright 1917, by w. Alice Burpee
& Co., Philadelphia
The old saying that ..You cannot eat
your cake and have it too does not al
together apply in the garden. Or, to
put it differently, if you handle your
garden in the right way in the fall you
can get lot Of the raw plant foods
which 1t contains stcooked-up" and
ready for your crops to use next sea-
son; and also save the next seasons
use the s'left-overs' that otherwise
would go to waste from the plant
foods you applied this year.
The plant food in the soil exists in
two forms called available" and 'un-
available" This simply means that
the plant food that is termed available
is in such forms that the roots of grow
ing plants can make immediate use of
it, while that termed unavailable is in
such condition that it has to undergo
chemical changes before the plant can
take it up. To make the matter plain
for the beginner we may say that the
unavailable plant foods in the soil
kinds which the cook may have in the
kitchen cupboard-four, rice, lima
beans, spaghetti, etc. These are all
foods but not available for human
use until after they have been changed
by cooking. The parallel may be car
ried step farther in that, after they
have been prepared, they cannot be
kept Indefinitely, and unless made use
Of large percentage of them will be
lost or wasted.
How to Keep Ready-to- Use Plant Food
From Going to Waste.
During the fall, winter and early
spring a great deal of the plant food in
soil that is left bare is carried away in
the surface washing and in the drain
age water resulting from rains and
from melting SHOWS. In the case of
nitrogen, which is the most valuable Of
the three plant foods most likely to be
ssshort" in any soil-nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid and potash further loss is
occasioned by its passing OFF into the
air. One Of the gardeners most inn
portant problems. therefore, is to save
what there may be left of these avail
able plant foods at the end of the sea-
son for another year. And, like the
surplus foods in the kitchen they may
be saved by Canning.
1t may at first glance seem rather
difficult problem to can an invisible
something hidden away in foot or so
of garden soil which it would take an
expert chemical analysis to find But
in reality it is much easier than the
kind of canning you do in the kitchen.
By planting a crop that will grow
through the winter and early spring
the surplus available foods will be
stored up in the roots, stems and
leaves of the growing plants, and when
these are plowed or spaded under in
the spring and decompose, you get your
plant foods back again, ready for use
by the vegetables you plant next
spring. In addition you fill your
garden soil with shumus". or vegetable
matter, which is almost asessential for
the healthy, vigorous growth of your
plants as having plenty Of plant food
in the soil Humus keeps the soil
broken up and porous and absorbs the
surplus moisture, storing it up for the
future needs of the growing plants dur
ing dry weather.
For these reasons you can readily
crops on every square foot OF your gar
den left uncovered before freezing
weather is not merely hobby, but just
about as important as putting manure
on your garden in the spring. In
ATTITUDES north OF Philadelphia, the
best crops to SOW for this purpose are
rye and winter yetch. South Of Phil
adelphia either these or crimson clover
may be used Both the yetch and the
clover are .legumes and not only con-
serve plant food as described above but
gather nitrogen from the air, actually
enriching the garden soil on which
they grow. The earlier these can be
sown the more growth they will make
before the ground freezes up. The best
way is to have enough seed on hand
and SOW each patch Of ground as soon
.D.Farren. yexe!e!