Year: 1879

HOW 10 Prepare n uaToous

 Many people commence the prepara- tion of their gardens too early in the | season, before the soil has become suffi- ciently dry and friable. If digging is | done when the earth is wet and cloggy, | the operation causes the soil to become like sunbaked bricks, which afterward | gives large amount of additional labor | to sufficiently pulverize it and render 1t suitable for seed-sowing and setting out young plants. It should not, therefore, be commenced until the sun and drying winds have evaporated all excess of water. Spading with spade is now seldom done by first-class gardeners. the fiat-tined spading fork being used in preference, as the soil can be more thoroughly and better pulverized with it than with spade. It is also far better implement for spading among fruit trees, shrubs, and hardy plants in the flower garden, as it does not cut and destroy the surface roots.

 Preparing the soil for the kitchen garden is the first work to be done, as many vegetable seeds do not vegetate freely if sown when the ground is too warm. The first operation is the spreading of the manure, horse manure being the best for general purposes. If hog, sheep, or chicken manure IS to be used, it should be first prepared by mix ing it with plenty of good dry soil, and breaking down and pulverizing all Jumps. This will enable it be more easily spread, for if left in lumpy state one plant is liable to have too much manure, whilst another may not have any, or at any rate less than its share. Horse or stable yard manure should have all the long straw, corn stalks, or other rubbish we'll shaken out of it. It is not necessary for ordinary garden purposes that the manure should be routed. It may be applied quite fresh, only less of it being used than when routed, as it is much stronger. Manure should always be very evenly spread, and in small quantities at time, as when exposed to the action of the sun and the high drying winds of March and April, large proportion of it's strength is evaporated, and so wasted. The spad- ing fork when used in digging unoccu- pied soil, should always be inserted nearly perpendicularly to the depth of eight or nine inches, the slices not being more than five or six inches wide; If much wider, the soil cannot be suffici- ently pulverized, and if the fork is moi inserted to a sufficient depth, the roots of the young plants will not penetrate deep enough to enable them to with stand any drought.

 The operation of trenching, or dig

 ging the soil two or more spades deep

 is generally wrongly performed, as the

 bottom soil is brought to the surface

 and the top soil buried below. In such

 cases the soil brought to the surface If

 almost always poor and of hungry na'

 ture, totally united for young plant

 life. The proper way of doing it is tt

 open trench two or more feet wide and

 a spade deep, throwing the top soil t

 one side, then spread some manure Il

 the bottom of the tren oh, and spade l

 into the bottom soil on this throw th'

 top soil of the next trench, incorporat

 ing with it some manure, and so on

 trench after trench, until the plot i

 finished, filling up the last trench witl

 the top soil taken from the first trench

 In spading among fruit trees or shrubs | II -,I,. hn

 in the hand, and only thin layers of soi

 turned over, for if thrust deeper tn roots near the surface will be broker and destroyed, to the great injury c the tree, Trees and shrubs requir

 very little manure at any one time. onl needing as much as will prevent the ez

 haustion of the soil by their bearin

 fruit, and this does not require to b

 deeply dug in. Flower beds should nc

 be spaded until all the plants have mad theinappearance above ground, for done too soon they are liable to be il iured by the fork or spade. They d not need much manure, as a geners

 rule.

 It is a very common practice for me who are employed to work in gardenl ,, especially when spading among group !, of shrubs, to work the beds much higf z CT in the center than at the sides. Tn is wrong, as it throws all the rain-fa from the center to the edges, and th ,, central shrubs do not get their propt : supply of moisture. In all cases tt

 surface should be kept quite level. !, is sure sign that. the so-called gardel z CT is an ignoramus, and does not ul . derstand his business. The operatie

 of spading is considered by most peop :. as very simple one which any labor' 7 can perform, but 1t is really te'

 whether the man employed to do it is practical gardener or only comme laborer. In the very many cases whel regular gardener is not or cannot

 kept, the work has to be done by

 common laborer, but in such cases b work should be supervised by an intell !. gent employer, for the success of u " garden season may largely depend upt ' it's being properly done at the first. :. the soil is not well pulverized, see ' sown in it do not vegetate freel S or they grow irregularly, and you1 ,f plants set out in it do not take TO = freely, and in the case of long-root : : vegetables, produce deformed, toug and stringy roots.-Harper's Rdzdo if Household Hints.

 'e To prevent meat from scorching dl T. ing roasting. place basin of water Id the oven. The steam generated prevel a. scorching and makes the meat co 10 better.