146 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



WATERING PAYS IF PROPERLY DONE. 



You can scarcely realize how much water it takes to moisten a piece of 

 dry ground to the depth of, say, six inches. I am of the opinion that for 

 general crops, except, perhaps, in a few locations especially favorable, any 

 system of pumping would not prove profitable. As ordinarily done, watering 

 plants does more harm than good. The only way it can be done safely is 

 to saturate the ground deeply and then pulverize the surface as soon as 

 sufficiently dry. 



If the ground is stirred when full of water and then exposed to a hot sun 

 it seems afifected similarly to plunging heated steel into cold water. The 

 particles are brought so closely together that they become exceedingly 

 hard, and water can not penetrate them, and the water held in the larger 

 interstices readily passes oflE, and it often requires years of patient labor to 

 bring the texture back to its normal condition. While light sand is less 

 affected than heavy clay, it is by no means exempt from serious injury by 

 wet working. More plants are killed by setting when the ground is too 

 wet than by any other cause. 



USEFULNESS OF DEEP PLOWING. 



Another means of conserving moisture is deep plowing and thoroughly 

 pulverizing the soil all the way down. My practice is, first, to run the 

 Morgan spading harrow (an indispensable tool on any farm) over the 

 ground and then harrow finely, usually going both ways, and then roll to 

 crush all lumps; next, plow as deeply as possible without catching too 

 much subsoil at a time, then roll again and use the spading harrow and 

 fine smoothing harrow, and finish with rolling. Of course this involves 

 some work, but the labor is much more than saved in after cultivation; 

 besides, it is very difficult to get the moisture out of soil pulverized so 

 finely. 



There is no question but subsoiling on most soils, the breaking up of 

 the lower strata and pulverizing so as to leave the loose soil as thick as 

 possible, greatly aids in the conservation of moisture. 



MULCHING UNEQUAL TO CULTIVATION. 



Mulching does nothing more than the cultivator. It must be sufficiently 

 dense and compact to perform the duty of closing the pores or it will not 

 be successful in preventing the ground from drying out. But there 

 are serious objections to mulching. When once begun, in the case of 

 trees and shrubs, it must be continuously renewed. The roots must have 

 air and the warmth of the sun, and will come very close to the surface to 

 get it, and when once established if we commence to cultivate we cut and 

 tear them to their serious and permanent injury. 



Very little moisture goes into the soil from the atmosphere as the result 

 of cultivation, as many people suppose. Whenever the air can penetrate 

 the soil it seems to be its business to absorb water and carry it off in the 

 form of vapor. If we fill a pitcher with ice water, the outside will in a 

 few minutes be covered with large drops of water, and it will continue to 

 collect so long as the water in the pitcher is colder than the air outside. 

 Heat draws moisture, so if at the close of a hot day we cultivate so as to 



