42 METHOD OF CULTIVATION. 
and slightly furrowed by a light shovel plow or marking 
instrument, but generally this is unnecessary. If the seed 
be planted on this ridge and lightly covered, growth takes 
place under peculiar advantages. 
1. Drainage during the wet season, when the growth of 
the young roots is in progress, is secured together with all 
its most prominent recognized benefits, such as rendering 
the soil permeable to the rains, which as they fall, rapidly 
percolate through it, carrying with them to the roots the 
fertilizing materials that they have collected on their way 
from the air and the upper layer of the soil, as well as the 
heat that they have absorbed, and each time followed on 
their retreat by accessions of fresh air entering through 
the open pores. ‘The roots are enabled to penetrate more 
deeply, thereby resisting the injurious effects of drought. 
From water-logged lands, on the contrary, fresh air which 
is as necessary to the root as to the leaf or the breathing 
animal, is excluded by the cold, standing water which fills 
the pores of the soil, and the seed rots; or if germination 
has taken place, the young plant is literally drowned. The 
warm rains wash the surface of the soil without entering 
it or conveying any of their heat to the interior, and, when 
the sun shines, a hard surface crust is formed that is almost 
as impenetrable to vegetable growth as if it were of ice. 
2. By ridging, a more thorough aeration of the soil in 
contact with the roots is effected; land thrown in ridges 
exposes a larger surface than when flat. 
3. Evaporation being promoted where the surface is 
ridged, the land is brought much sooner into a cultivable 
condition after wet weather. 
4, The young cane being upon the top of the ridge has 
the advantage of elevation over weeds that may spring up 
around it, and grows more rapidly, receiving more light 
and air. 
