86 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



RIDGES, HILLS, RAISED BEDS AND LEVEL CULTURE. 



Though the considerations suggested by these words are in- 

 volved in irrigation and drainage, they are commonly regarded as 

 phases of cultivation. It is almost obvious that all methods of 

 lifting the plant bed above the common surface are equivalent to 

 providing it with the fullest facilities for surface drainage. When- 

 ever, then, ridging or hilling or raising whole garden beds is prac- 

 ticed without connection with irrigation upon the elevated surface, 

 it affords exceptional means for the escape of surplus water and 

 relief to the plant from saturated soil. By this act the winter growth 

 of vegetables, hardy enough to withstand the local climate, can be 

 carried on in the most retentive soil under a very heavy rainfall. 



Ridging. It matters not whether this ridging is done very 

 quickly with the plow by back furrowing or whether a raised bed 

 is made in the small garden with a retaining border, the principle 

 is the same and it is a very useful one. It affords a ready answer 

 to the requirement which exists in many parts of California for 

 facilitating winter growth by drainage without at the same time 

 endangering too great loss of water for summer cropping. The 

 back furrow gives the plants a greater depth of stirred soil, which is 

 especially valuable in the rainy season. After the early crop of 

 hardy vegetables is disposed of there will still be time to plow down 

 the ridges and put the soil in receptive shape for the late winter or 

 spring rains, cultivating being done later to retain moisture until 

 the frost-free period arrives, when the same land will take its sum- 

 mer crop of tender vegetables with or without irrigation as the 

 character of the soil, the proposed growth and the local rainfall 

 shall require. 



Raised Beds. A more elaborate application of the same prin- 

 ciples consists in the raised beds, which are very useful for winter 

 growth in the small garden and, in combination with irrigation by 

 seepage as already described in the chapter on that subject, afford 

 a means for applying water or escaping from it as the conditions at 

 any time shall dictate. 



Another form is the permanent, bordered, raised bed of the 

 kitchen garden, which is very serviceable either in farm or village 

 growth of home supplies by hand work, both in cultivation and 

 sprinkling. This is the method by which Mr. Ira W. Adams, of 

 Potter Valley, one of our most resourceful vegetable growers, ap- 

 plies the principle on a small scale : 



