12 VEGETABLE GROWING L\ NEW SOUTH WALES. 



For successful vegetable culture the preparation of the ground requires to 

 be both deep and thorough. Rapid, vigorous growth, such as is desirable in 

 vegetables, requires ample soil from which the roots can draw plant-food ; 

 and, clearly, this is not provided if the subsoil is stiff and unkindly. 

 Especially must the cultivation be deep, and this involves that the ground must 

 have been cleared in a conscientious manner. Hence, if it is uncleared land 

 that is being taken up, arrangements must be made to ensure that not only 

 is the timber removed, but the roots are " rut),'' and taken out to a depth of 

 not less than 12 inches deeper still is better and advisable. If the work is 

 delegated to a contractor, it will be well to provide (1) that the roots shall be 

 " run" as stated ; and (2) that after the clearing the contractor shall follow 

 the plough and subsoiler to clear away any roots disclosed by the first working. 



The Value of Deep Working. 



The depth to which the soil is worked will depend on the class of soil and 

 subsoil, but in fair average soils it should be, at the very least, 8 inches 

 Sandy soils do not require to be worked to such a depth as those of a loamy 

 or clayey nature. Soils of the latter class should always be deeply stirred, 

 though not necessarily wholly by inversion, for often it is better at the first 

 ploughing to follow the mouldboard with a subsoiler than to set the plough 

 so deep as to bring clay to the surface. Time was when vegetable 

 gardening would not hare been contemplated if the land were not well 

 trenched first ; but under present rates for labour the operation, valuable 

 though it is, is too expensive. In commencing a garden of any appreciable 

 area, it will be found cheaper to have the preliminary work done by 

 horse power. Where it is intended to raise crops by intensive methods of 

 culture, it may not be possible to use horse implements after the ground has 

 once been laid out and cropping commenced ; hence the necessity for a 

 thorough tillage and subsoiling in the first place. Only in the small home 

 garden is it possible nowadays to do the subsoiling by hand. There it will 

 be found profitable, and, in the great majority of cases, essential. 



This point of thorough and deep tillage is of such importance as to justify 

 emphasis being laid upon it. No amount of intertillage at a later stage will 

 fully compensate for faulty preparation before sowing. Plants will only grow 

 to perfection where the root systems are allowed room for full development, 

 and this is only possible on thoroughly prepared land. 



Nor must this advice be restricted to new land. Between each crop the 

 soil should receive a good deep working prior to the preparation of the seed 

 bed. Land that i not to be cropped during the winter, for instance, should 

 always be turned over in the autumn and allowed to weather. This working 

 is not only valuable in connection with the storage of moisture and the 

 increase of the plant-food prepared by soil bacteria under the improved con- 

 ditions, but it enables the ground to be brought into better tilth in the 

 spring, and much sooner than if it had not been so treated. 



