e dug at least two feet
deep--three is better--and good garden soil, or soil from a corn-field
or any hoed crop where the weeds have been kept down, used to
supplement all but the top layer one foot in depth. All of this applies
to tree and shrub holes also. This top layer of one foot in depth is
apt to be in fair condition for immediate use and may be applied in the
bottom of the bed, mixed with either fresh or rotted manure. The soil
brought in may be mixed with old manure and placed on top.

A word about "old manure" is opportune here. Any manure that has been
piled up for a year or more in a weed-infested corner and used on your
grounds, especially on your lawn, is the best promoter of exercise I
know of, and can keep you busy all summer dislodging the weeds that
spring from the seed its bosom protected.

Of course, in a few sections where the soil is three feet deep--as I am
told it is in the Illinois corn belt--all that is needed is to loosen
up the soil to the depth mentioned, and add old manure. If the removal
and bringing in of so much new soil is too harsh on the pocketbook we
must proceed in a more economical way. If the soil is clayey in
texture, mix with it sifted coal ashes or sand, and the coarser part of
the ashes may be incorporated with the soil in the lower foot of bed.
Remove the top one-foot layer, and set it aside; throw out the bottom
soil to the remaining depth. Break it up finely and, in replacing it,
besides the coal ashes or sand, add fresh strong manure, placing it in
horizontal layers--say three inches of soil, and then a layer of manure
four inches thick, when gently tamped down; or make the layers
slantingly--say at an angle of about forty-five degrees. This will add
humus to the soil, and allow air and moisture to penetrate it. Then put
in the original top layer, mixing it with old manure. No fresh manure
should touch the root of a plant. The fresh manure at the bottom of the
bed will be well rotted by the time the roots reach it. After the top
layer is put on you will find the bed raised up six to eight inches
above the lawn, which is all right; it will settle enough in time. At
all times break up the soil into fine particles, otherwise a lump of
clay will remain a lump, and is of little value for plant use.

In making beds or shrub holes close to buildings having a cellar, one
generally has to remove entirely all the soil, as that present usually
consists of the deeper soil from the c