72 GARDENING WITH BRAINS 



rye supports the vetch and makes the plowing 

 easier. 



The problem of watering is much simplified 

 by thus putting plenty of humus into your soil. 

 Still, the humus alone will not do it; nor will 

 the hoe. Shallow hoeing after a rain, to break 

 up the crust and create a dust mulch, is very 

 important; but the long vines of peas and pota- 

 toes and tomatoes, the stalks of corn, and the 

 leaves of carrots and beets and turnips, absorb 

 and dissipate an enormous amount of moisture, 

 in spite of hoe and mulch. This moisture has 

 to be replaced by judicious and frequent water- 

 ing. Salad plants, in dry weather, should be 

 watered daily, for if there is a check in their 

 growth they bolt and go to seed. That means 

 much work; but the greens are worth it, not 

 only because they make delicious salads, but 

 because, more than any other plants, they 

 abound in health-giving vitamines, or, rather, 

 mineral salts; for Alfred W. McCann has ex- 

 ploded the vitamine theory. 



GETTING STRENGTH FROM GREENS 



My neighbor in Maine has in his barn a bull 

 a magnificent specimen of bovine physique 

 and strength. That animal lives all the year 

 on hay and water. Elephants live on greens 

 and water. They are as strong as meat-eating 

 lions and I would bet on that bull in a fight 

 with a lion. Water and greens, fresh or dried, 



