CULTIVATION. 1 49 



over a comparatively hard surface, which by the following 

 June has become so solid as to suffer disastrously from 

 drought in the blossoming and bearing season. I have seen 

 well-mulched fields with their plants faltering and wilting, 

 unable to mature the crop because the ground had become 

 so hard that an ordinary shower could make but little im- 

 pression. Moreover, even if kept moist by the mulch, land 

 long shielded from sun and air tends to become sour, heavy, 

 and devoid of that life which gives vitality and vigor to the 

 plant. The winter mulch need not be laboriously raked 

 from the garden-bed or field, and then carted back again. 

 Begin on one side of a plantation and rake tov/ard the 

 other, until three or four rows and the spaces between them 

 are bare ; then fork the spaces, or run the cultivator — often 

 the subsoil plow — deeply through them, and then immedi- 

 ately, before the moist, newly made surface dries, rake the 

 winter mulch back into its place as a summer mulch. Then 

 take another strip and treat it in like manner, until the gen- 

 erous impulse of spring air and sunshine has been given to 

 the soil of the entire plantation. 



This spring cultivation should be done early — as soon as 

 possible after the ground is dry enough to work. The roots 

 of a plant or tree should never be seriously disturbed in the 

 blossoming or bearing period ; and yet I would rather stir 

 the surface^ even when my beds were in full bloom, than 

 leave it hard, baked, and dry ; for, heed this truth well, — 

 unless a plant, from the time it blossoms until the fruit ma- 

 tures, has an abundance of moisture, it will fail in almost the 

 exact proportion that moisture fails. A liberal summer 

 mulch under and around the plants not only keeps the fruit 

 clean, but renders a watering much more lasting, by shield- 

 ing the soil from the sun. Never sprinkle the plants a little 

 in dry weather. If you water at all, soak the ground and 



