68
soil
for
their
food. The nutrients they
don't
need
for
themselves,
they
leave behind in
their
castings.
Earthworms can be extremely
helpful
in
providing passageways
throughout
the
top-
soil and
down
into
the subsoil
through
which
surface water can travel and get
down
into
the
soil rather than
simply
running
off. These
passageways
of
earthworms, lined
with
their
castings, spread rich nutrients
throughout
the
soil Most often, these rich
nutrients
have been
dragged
down
into
the
soil
from
the surface
or
up from the subsoil
by
the worms.
What this all means is that
earthworms
can
be marvelously beneficial in
improving
and
maintaining
the
best soil
conditions
for
good
crop
growth.
By themselves,
they
won't
make
a
flourishing
garden
out
of
barren wasteland.
But, they will be
of
great assistance in
your
efforts
to
improve
poor
clay soil
or
mixtures
of
clay and fine grain sand, if
you
provide the
worms with some
organic
material and
mois-
ture and the
nutrients
that
are lacking.
SOURCES OF ORGANIC MATTER
The
most
common
sources
of
organic
matter
for
home
gardeners, are leaves, old hay,
ani-
mal manures
of
all kinds, compost, grass
clippings, weeds,
crop
residues and green
manure crops. A garden with plenty
of
de-
caying
organic
matter has so many things
going
for
it that it
can't
help
but
be
bountiful.
Thousands
of
Troy-Bilt
owners are
now
having
tremendous results because
they
can spread
huge quantities
of
organic
material over
their
gardens,
chop
them up, and
till
them
under-in
one easy operation.
This
is a task that can
only
be
accomplished
effectively
with
a rear-
end
tiller
like
your
Troy-Bilt.
POWER
COMPOSTING
Compost
piles are a tradition
with
most
gar-
deners. The finished
product
does wonders.
However,
compost
piles take a lot
of
time and
effort
to
produce
relatively
little
quantities.
A large pile
of
leaves will reduce
down
to
a few
pounds
of
leaf mold. You can
work
for
long
hours
of
collecting, layering, watering and
turning
over a pile in the course
of
a year, and
still yield barely enough to sprinkle over
your
garden.
The
Troy-Bilt
Tiller
makes
it
possible
to
create ten times
as
much
compost
in
one-tenth
of
the time. We call it
"power
composting"
because the
Troy-Bilt
can
actually
chop, shred
and bUry
organic
materials
directly
into
the
soil. Surrounded
by
earthworms
and all the
other
forms
of
life
which
digest
and break
down these materials,
"compost"
and new
humus is manufactured so
much
faster.
It is absolutely essential
that
a garden be fed
something if it is
to
be
bountiful
year after
year in the same location. You
must
replenish
the plant nutrients,
primarily
nitrogen,
phos-
phorus,
potassium-that
you
took
away from
the soil in the form
of
harvested
fruits
and
vegetables. The first place
to
begin
with
is the
garden residues, especially
turning
them
under
while they are still leafy, green and tender.
They will furnish
much
more
good
food
for
the
earthworms and
other
soiI life.
TURN IN GREEN CROPS EARLY
Turn
crop
residues
under
as
soon
as
they
finish bearing instead
of
letting them
go
to
seed. The
sooner
this is done, the better
for
your
garden. Tender, green
matter
tills in
more
easily and decomposes faster. See Photo5/29.
Other
sources
of
good
organic
material are
sawdust,
woodchips,
animal manures
of
var-
ious kinds, alfalfa, hay, straw, grass
clippings,
seaweed, leaf mold, and shells. There are
several
other
organic
fertilizing agents to be
found as refuse near certain industries,
such
as
tobacco
stems, sludge,
dry
fish scraps, and
gra-
nite dust.
(Photo 5/29)
Tilling
crop
residues.
COVER CROPS
It makes sense
to
add
more
valuable organic
matter
to
your
garden
with
a
green
manure
cover
crop.
See Photo 5/30.
Why
not
keep
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