THE ADVANTAGES FROM CAPITAL 95 



be assembled and kept in the sun for ten to twelve days, 

 then turned into the pipes until the ground is well soaked, 

 and then shut off and not allowed in the pipes again for ten 

 to fifteen days, according to the weather and condition of 

 moisture in the soil. The crop should be cultivated between 

 each watering. 



However, as Bailey says, "Evidently in all regions in 

 which crops will yield abundantly without irrigation, as in 

 the East, the main reliance is to be placed on good tillage." 



"Most vegetable gardeners in the East do not find it prof- 

 itable to irrigate. Now and then a man who has push and 

 the ability to handle a fine crop to advantage, finds it a very 

 profitable undertaking." ("Principles of Vegetable Gar- 

 dening," page 174.) Bailey, however, was not thinking of 

 " overhead irrigation." 



The late J. M. Smith, Green Bay, Wisconsin, was one of 

 the expert market gardeners of his region. "The longer I 

 live," wrote Mr. Smith, then in the midst of a serious drought, 

 "the more firmly am I convinced that plenty of manure 

 and then the most complete system of cultivation make an 

 almost complete protection against ordinary droughts." 

 (Same, page 330.) 



If the soil is cultivated carefully and intensively, it will 

 hold water within itself and carry a storage reservoir under- 

 neath the growing crop. Finely pulverizing and packing 

 the seed bed, makes it retain the greatest possible percent- 

 age of the moisture that falls, just as a tumbler full of fine 

 sponge or of birdshot will retain many times the amount of 

 water that a tumbler full of buckshot will. The atmos- 

 phere quickly drinks up the moisture from the soil unless we 

 prevent it. This we do by means of a soil "blanket," called 

 a "mulch." This finely pulverized surface largely prevents 



