382 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



HOETICULTURAL STEUCTUEES AND 

 IMPLE3[ENTS. 



IMPLEMENTS AND CULTIVATION. 



(A DISCUSSION.) 



President Underwood : I might say a few words in regard 

 to implements. We need implements fit for shallow culture. 

 Perhaps, in some heavy soils you might want to get deep cul- 

 ture, but 1 think what we are striving for is to get as shallow 

 culture as possible. I don't think that the double cultivators, 

 which we used for a couple of years, were a good thing. We 

 have converted ours into smaller cultivators, making them 

 with eight teeth instead of foar. I think we ought to be care- 

 ful and not cultivate too deep. I find that more shallow culti- 

 vation at the proper time is better than deep. 



Mr. Elliot: I think that we sometimes cultivate too deep, 

 although I don't believe that we cultivate too often. I don't 

 think the ideal cultivator has yet been invented. When we 

 get it, I think we will find that it will cultivate deep at the 

 middle of the row and shallow at the sides. As a rule, if peo- 

 ple would cultivate before the weeds get' the mastery, they 

 would find it an advantage. I do not believe that there is any- 

 one here who has cultivated too often. I was a good deal 

 annoyed while traveling about the country this spring to see 

 the way in which the weeds were over-topping everything in 

 some places. I have often thought that, if we should get into 

 our fields in the spring a little earlier, it would be much better 

 for the crops. We are too apt to leave it until we see the 

 weeds start, and I think that is improper. I think that we 

 ought to do it as soon as the ground is dry enough to cultivate, 

 and follow this right up through the season. Every time it 

 rains the surface of the ground should be broken and loosened. 

 I think that kind of cultivation would prove very beneficial. 



President Underwood: I know from experience and not 

 only from one year's experience but from a number of years' 

 work in this line, that it is possible to cultivate too often. Of 



