Sandy Soil
Little plant babies are so delicate that a very sandy bed would not do for them either, for a rain might wash away the soil from their roots.
All plants are very particular, and grow best if their bed is “just right.”
So, if in a couple of days after a rain, a squeezed handful of your garden soil will not hold together at all, and sifts through your fingers, heavier material must be added.
A little clay worked into the sand and run over with a roller helps; but there is something even better—it is stable manure.
Humus
Stable manure[C] not only helps hold sandy soil together and lightens clayey soils, but it contains a very great deal of plant food in the form of humus, and without humus all the other plant food in the soil is of very little value to the plant.
What Humus Is
I know you are going to ask me what humus is; but first I want to ask you to think what the soil is. Yes, dirt, that is right; but dirt came from where?