54 VEGETABLE GARDENING 



deeper into the land than is generally known; even the 

 onion, which is, perhaps, as shallow rooted as any garden 

 crop grown, often pushes its roots to a depth of eighteen 

 inches in good soil, and corn roots have been followed to a 

 depth of four feet. It is probable that in good land almost 

 any of our garden crops will send their roots eighteen or 

 more inches deep. 



Ridging the Land. If the land is liable to be too wet 

 for planting in early spring, it is sometimes a good practice 

 in plowing it to turn several furrows back to back and thus 

 leave the land in ridges over winter. If these ridges or 

 "lands" are made fifteen or twenty feet wide, they may be 

 dragged and planted in the spring without further plowing. 

 For some crops it is often best to open the furrows again in 

 the spring and thus leave the land level. This method of 

 treatment permits of working the land much earlier in the 

 spring than it otherwise could be worked if plowed flat. It 

 also leaves the soil in very good shape for the action of 

 frost on its particles during the winter. For early crops on 

 flat or heavy soils it is a most desirable treatment. The 

 objection to it is that if not turned back in the spring the 

 dead furrows interfere with cultivation; and if the land is 

 plowed again in the spring, it may be left too loose. But 

 admitting these objections, even then there are often cases 

 where ridging would be very desirable. It should be borne 

 in mind, too, in cultivating the garden, that while the soil 

 in it may be too loose, it can not be too rich or too deep; 

 nor can the subsoil, if not of too impervious a nature, be 

 too compact, and yet it must be loose enough to permit of 

 the roots entering it and the water percolating through it. 



General Cultivation of Garden Crops. The meth- 

 ods to be pursued in the general cultivation of garden crops 

 vary somewhat according to the soil, season, and crop. It is 



