PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 145 



life and even support a luxuriant growth during the trying months of 

 July and August, for these are the only months in which we often suffer 

 serious inconvenience. The drouth of 1893 is reported to have been the 

 most prolonged and severe on record, and yet on my strawberry, black- 

 berry, and raspberry plantations, as well as vineyards, there was not a day 

 when I could not get moist earth within an inch of the surface in all places 

 where the cultivator could be brought to do its work. In one part of a 

 plat of ground, if a well had been dug fifteen feet deep it would have been 

 almost destitute of moisture all the way down, while if it had been dug 

 on the new setting of strawberries, not fifty feet away, the ground would 

 have been found perfectly moist all the way to the bottom. Why this differ- 

 ence? If we had closely observed the first plat, very early in the morning, 

 when the air was colder than the soil, we should have found the vapor escap- 

 ing as freely as steam from an exhaust pipe. It comes up through the soil by 

 capillary attraction, which goes on even if the water supply be a hundred 

 feet below. 



HOW CULTIVATION ACTS AS A MULCH. 



When the ground is filled with water the surplus passes down through 

 the large fissures which are always present in the ground, but that which 

 is held in suspension, in what we recognize as moist earth, passes off only 

 by evaporation; and if there be no obstruction the ground dries out to a 

 great depth. In the first piece of ground the moisture had escaped with 

 freedom for two and a half months, with no rain to moisten even the sur- 

 face. It is well known that if in a very dry time we lay a large board on 

 the ground a few days, on moving it the ground is found moist directly 

 under it. Where does the moisture come from? The board obstructed 

 the rising vapor and the ground absorbed it. Now, in the second these 

 capillary passages had been broken with fine earth and a blanket of mellow 

 soil had absorbed the moisture like a sponge and prevented the water from 

 below from escaping. The moisture collects underneath, and, aided by the 

 hot August sun, the vapor would force its passage up to the surface again 

 in four or five days, and so we went over these beds twice per week during 

 July, August, and September, and thus kept them moist. The work was 

 done by machinery, very fast, and was entirely effectual. The instrument 

 we used is called the Planet Jr. horse hoe and pulverizer. It has twelve 

 teeth and a sort of adjustable comb that drags through and crushes every 

 lump as fine as powder. When a rain falls, wetting down even an inch, 

 and the hot sun comes out, capillary action will begin very quickly, and in 

 even a few hours the moisture will escape so that the ground will be drier 

 than ever, and no time must be lost in breaking them up again. 



The question is often asked, if the ground becomes very dry shall we 

 cultivate? Certainly; and that, too, as quickly as possible. As already 

 stated, vapor is always coming up, and it should not be allowed to escape. 

 I have often taken a piece of neglected ground, showing almost no moist- 

 ure at the first cultivation, but the third time it was gone over the ground 

 was quite moist and crops greatly improved. It is of the utmost import- 

 ance that the ground be pulverized as fine and left as level as possible. 

 19 ^ 



