It should be remembered that culture does for soil what it does
for men and women. It mellows, brings it up, and renders it
capable of finer products. Much, indeed, can be done with a crude
piece of land in a single year when treated with the thoroughness
that has been suggested, and some strong-growing vegetables may be
seen at their best during the first season; but the more delicate
vegetables thrive better with successive years of cultivation. No
matter how abundantly the ground may be enriched at first, time
and chemical action are required to transmute the fertilizers into
the best forms of plant-food, and make them a part of the very
soil itself. Plowing or spading, especially if done in late
autumn, exposes the mould to the beneficial action of the air and
frost, and the garden gradually takes on the refined, mellow,
fertile character which distinguishes it from the ordinary field.
In dealing with a thin, sandy soil, one has almost to reverse the
principles just given. Yet there is no cause for discouragement.
Fine results, if not the best, can be secured. In this case there
is scarcely any possibility for a thorough preparation of the soil
from the start. It can gradually be improved, however, by making
good its deficiencies, the chief of which is the lack of vegetable
mould.
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