This is the second strata, usually of different texture and color from
the rich surface soil, and harder than it. If you find a sandy or
gravelly bed, no matter how yellow and poor it looks, you have chosen
the right spot. But if it be a stiff, heavy clay, especially a blue
clay, you will have either to drain it or be content with a very late
garden--that is, unless you are at the top of a knoll or on a slope.
Chapter VII contains further suggestions in regard to this problem.


SOIL ANTECEDENTS


There was a further reason for, mentioning that strip of onion ground.
It is a very practical illustration of what last year's handling of the
soil means to this year's garden. If you can pick out a spot, even if
it is not the most desirable in other ways, that has been well enriched
or cultivated for a year or two previous, take that for this year's
garden. And in the meantime have the spot on which you intend to make
your permanent vegetable garden thoroughly "fitted," and grow there
this year a crop of potatoes or sweet corn, as suggested in Chapter IX.
Then next year you will have conditions just right to give your
vegetables a great start.


OTHER CONSIDERATIONS


There are other things of minor importance but worth considering, such
as the shape of your garden plot, for instance. The more nearly
rectangular, the more convenient it will be to work and the more easily