Because in your neighbor’s garden a certain treatment has been successful, is not saying that it will give the same results in yours, unless all the conditions are the same. For instance, his light, sandy loam needs little cultivation, and your soil may be hard and clayey. In that case you would have to make up the difference by careful work. There are “gardeners” who think it is sufficient barely to break up the ground, add a little manure or other fertilizer, and scatter seeds. That they get any sort of results only shows how willing Nature is to give a return on the slightest labor. But Nature is wise as well as willing, and therefore gives lavishly to him only, who, by intelligent labor, deserves the best returns. Therefore, learn the needs of your soil and supply them, and you will have no cause to complain of the niggardliness of Mother Nature to those of her children who feed at her bosom. Plants often die for lack of moisture in the soil, and this condition cannot be satisfactorily remedied by the watering-can. The trouble lies back of such surface treatment and can only be cured by getting at the cause. The soil should be so prepared by tillage that it will catch and hold enough water to supply the plants with the moisture they need even through hot, dry spells. Plants draw their nourishment through their roots to their stems and leaves, and you need only examine the fine roots and rootlets of any plant to realize for yourself that such nourishment could not be taken in in a solid form. Plants are constantly drawing this moisture from the soil and as constantly giving it off into the air through their leaves. If you will watch any plant during a drought, you will see the leaves begin to shrivel before the stems or branches show signs of suffering. This is Nature’s effort to sustain the life of the plant as long as possible. The shrivelling of the leaves prevents the escape of the little moisture the plant can draw, and retains it longer within the plant’s system. Deep plowing, the breaking up of the subsoil, the addition of decaying vegetable matter or humus, fertilizing with stable manure, and the raising of crops that can be frequently tilled, all help to add moisture to the soil. If you do these and the dry spell does strike you hard, so that it seems necessary to bring water, the soil will suck it and hold it, instead of letting it pass off quickly through the action of sun and air. Frequent stirring of the surface soil, to the depth of one inch, will make a little dry layer or top-coat through which the moisture does not readily escape. This is what is called a “mulch.” A mulch may also be an added coat of leaf-mould or stable-litter or any little dry covering which will prevent the moisture from escaping.