VEGETABLE GROWING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. li> 



Exhaustive experiments have proved that to disturb the top soil prevents 

 moisture from rising to the surface, where sun and wind can carry it off by 

 the process of evaporation, and that the effect of neglecting thesurface in 

 summer is simply to allow the moisture (so precious at that time of the 

 year) to escape into the air. The only convenient way of preventing loss by 

 evaporation is to maintain a dry, loose surface, freshening it every time rain, 

 irrigation, or tramping sets it down again. The top 12 or 18 inches of soil 

 are the most important to plant life, but beneath that is usually stored a 

 reserve of water which is conducted to the surface by fine capillary tubes. 

 Once the connection between subsoil and surface is established, and capillary 

 action can proceed freely, the moisture below will rise steadily to the surface ; 

 where it will pass off into the air. The gardener who wishes to be 

 successful must register a resolution that, so far as his property is concerned, 

 compacted and neglected surfaces shall not be tolerated that, in other- 

 words, loss of moisture by capillarity and evaporation shall be reduced to a 

 minimum. 



While a soil mulch is perhaps the most convenient method of preventing 

 evaporation, stable manure and straw are also largely used for the purpose, 

 their effect being to prevent the sun and wind from too close contact with 

 the soil surface. In raised beds, where it is often difficult to maintain the 

 sides in a loose condition without constant washing down, the sides should 

 be covered with some mulching material in order to prevent loss of moisture. 



The only time when the gardener should excuse in his own mind any loss 

 of moisture is in the germination of fine seeds. It is then necessary, in 

 order to obtain a good percentage of germination, to reduce the soil to a fine 

 tilth, and to roll it after sowing the seed. This brings the moisture to the 

 surface, by consolidating the soil so that capillary movement of the subsoil 

 moisture is set up ; germination is thus ensured. But even in such cases the 

 surface should be broken as soon as the plants are established. In the case 

 of seeds (such as onions, tfcc.) sown by a hand "seed-so\* er, the rolled portion 

 between the rows should be disturbed immediately after sowing. 



The Eradication of Weeds. 



With many, weeds are the chief factor in 'constant surface cultivation, 

 and much as the gardener otherwise regardo them they therefore have 

 some utility in imposing an operation that in other respects has so 

 much value as we have indicated above. The seeds of weeds are constantly 

 being carted on to the garden with manure, and more are also deposited 

 there by wind, birds, &c., so that their destruction must ever be before 

 the grower. The old saying that " one year's seeding makes seven years 

 weeding " is particularly true in a vegetable garden. Seeds which are shed 

 in one year clo not always germinate the following season some may be 

 buried too deep, or where the conditions are otherwise unfavourable, but 

 they retain their vitality for a long while, and will germinate so soon as they 



