74 VEGETABLE FORCING 



As early in the spring as the ground is dry enough to 

 be worked, and after some manure has been applied, use 

 a disk or cutaway harrow repeatedly until the sod and 

 manure are thoroughly cut up. Then apply as much 

 more fresh horse or cow manure as can be turned under 

 with a two-horse plow. It may be an advantage for a 

 boy to follow the plow with a fork to draw into the 

 furrow the manure which would interfere with the next 

 furrow slice. By proper management it will be possible 

 to plow under 40 tons or more of manure to the acre. 

 After plowing, disk the soil, apply lime if desired, and 

 harrow again. More rotten manure, if it is needed, may 

 be added at any time during the summer. It may be 

 necessary to plow the land two or three times during the 

 summer, and the plot should be harrowed often enough 

 to thoroughly reduce the fiber. In the stiffer soils, a 

 spring-tooth harrow should be used occasionally instead 

 of a disk harrow. By September the soil should be in 

 prime condition for use. The old soil, when hauled back 

 to the field from the greenhouse, furnishes ideal condi- 

 tions for market garden crops. But whatever may be 

 said regarding the merits of this method of soil prepara- 

 tion, it is too expensive to receive the serious considera- 

 tion of extensive commercial growers, although far more 

 economical than any of the usual methods of hand 

 composting. 



Green manuring. It is often an advantage to use green 

 manures in conjunction with field applications of stable 

 manures. This practice will be found of special value in 

 naturally poor soil and when liberal quantities of stable 

 manure are inaccessible or very expensive. This process 

 of increasing the supply of humus may be begun in the 

 fall by sowing rye at the rate of three bushels of seed to 

 the acre. When the rye is about a foot high the follow- 

 ing spring it may be plowed down and followed with 

 oats and Canada field peas, or with cowpeas or soy beans. 



