ON THE IMPORTANCE OF TIMELY CULTURE. 



BY C. E. G., UTICA, K. T. 



In a climate and soil like ours, spontaneous fruitfulness can never be expected. There 

 are doubtless choice positions where a few trees or vegetables, having once taken root, 

 will grow luxuriantly and produce bountifully ; and, although without the elementary 

 constituents of plants existing in the soil no culture, however wise, can make vegeta- 

 tion flourish ; yet, in any tolerable soil the prosperity of a crop depends quite as much 

 on the wisdom of the culture as on the inherent quality of the soil. 



There is, however, not only a special importance in culture, but also in ear/y culture. 

 Suppose a hill of corn, or one of cucumbers, neglected until the one is a foot high and 

 the other has made vines a foot long. They are already perhaps one week behind 

 their neighbors in similar soil, but enjoying timely culture. The effort to clear away 

 the weeds from either of these hills will disturb the roots, while their sudden removal 

 will let in a powerful sun upon a plant already feeble by neglect and injury to the 

 roots. By these means the plant is checked perhaps another week. 



But suppose, in a good soil, and with wise though late culture, the plant should per- 

 fectly recover its health, and grow to its full expansion. The fruit must set at least two 

 and in some cases three weeks later than otherwise. In the case of very early planted 

 crops, or a long season, they may possibly get ripe, but often not. Thus the result is 

 seen to be exactly equivalent to late planting, and the strong probabiiity is that your 

 crop will mature at a season not the most favorable to its health and productiveness. 

 "We see thus that one acre of soil receiving timely culture, may be as productive as 

 two with lute culture, while the expense of labor will always be less on the timely than 

 on the untimely. Nor is this all : in the one case the crop may cost more than it is 

 worth, while in the other it will be highly profitable. 



I have seen a patch of melons, tomatoes, or pickle cucumbers, and even fields of 

 corn, injured in quantity and quality, not from want of fertility in the soil, nor amount 

 of labor expended upon them, but from the want of timeliness in that labor. 



Potatoes seasonably planted, in Central New York, usually gain their utmost 

 expansion and are covered with flowers by the loth of July. In this case their tubers 

 will be nearly full grown and covered with a fii-rn skin by the first of September. 

 But suppose, in consequence of deferred cultivation, the season of maturity in the 

 tuber should be protracted until late in September. In this case the last two or three 

 weeks of its growth is amid damp, dark, and chilly weather, such as is inconsistent 

 with the healthful elaboration of a tropical plant ; it will probably be at least slightly 

 diseased, and so would all other tropical plants. 



We reproach the man who by neglect permits a fine litter of pigs or herd of calves 

 to pine and become stunted ; but is he less a sinner who with equal carelessness sows 

 or plants more acres than under ordinary circumstances he can wisely cultivate. 



