38 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I wish to sa}' that I also favor the winter vetch because of its 

 viiiing habit. Just as soon as the vetch begins to stool, vines start 

 in all directions, growing over the ground, which completely shades the 

 soil and makes it mellow and rich. The winter vetch develops a great 

 mass of feeding roots, which naturally has a tendency to loosen the 

 soil, and when this mat of growth is jilowed under it not only ad<1s 

 great «iuantities ol' humus, but an abundance of nitrogen as well. 

 And 1 wish to impress upon your minds that all legume crops should 

 be allowed to come into full bloom before plowing them under. It 

 seems that the bacteria nodules are not fully developed and that the 

 full benetit, therefore, is not derived from legume crops until the blos- 

 soms begin to open. 



Another reason why I favor the winter vetch is that it may remain 

 on the ground throughout the winter and makes an ideal mulch, pro- 

 tecting the soil from washing. It also prevents any leaching of ]>lant 

 foods which takes place on soil where no crop is growing. The vetch 

 may be turned under in the spring in advance of the time when straw- 

 berr}^ plants or bush-fruit plants are to be set. 



By liming the soil and then growing some legume crop, we not 

 only have neutralized the acid Avhich is present in the soil, but we 

 have added the humus and nitrogen which is so important to all plant 

 life. And the roots of the legumes go deeply into the lower soils, 

 bringing up the phosphorus and potassium which would remain inert 

 were it not for the action of the legumes in bringing them nearer to 

 the surface where they become available for the future crops. 



PLOWING. 



When plowing the ground, I like a plow that will throw the furrow 

 slices one against the other, rather than completely turning them 

 over. To make this more plain, I will say that the furrows should not 

 be turned directly upside-down. With this kind of plowing, the legume 

 crop or vegetable matter or manure is thrown on the bottoms of the 

 furrow slices, which makes it quite difficult to incor])orate the vege- 

 table matter with the surface soil. When the furrow slices are thrown 

 one against the other, the furrow slices leaning on their edges, the 

 vegetable matter is thrown in between the furrow slices and this makes 

 the incor])oration of this material into the soil an easy matter. The 

 double acting disks, acme harrows and spring-tooth harrows will so 

 incorporate the vegetable matter into the soil that it will leave it very 

 spongy and mellow^, and that is the condition we most desire. 



PREPARING SOIL FOR PLANTS. 



There is no such thing as preparing soil too thoroughly. I find 

 that the more the soil is mixed and stirred, the better results we get, 

 and many of us fail, not because our soil is unpi'oductive, but be- 

 cause we fail properly to mix the different ingredients and the humus 

 well into the soil. And right here I wish to relate a little circum- 

 stance that occurred in ' my o^^^l home : 



Mrs. Beatty is a splended cook, but one thing she did not make 

 was good pancakes. We had a colored cook working for us who 



