228 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



plants. Such implements may be used just as the seedlings are 

 breaking ground. As soon as the plants have gained some little 

 strength, implements should be used that will go deeper, until a 

 depth of two or three inches can be easily worked without endanger- 

 ing the safety of the crop by covering the plants with dirt. It is 

 doubtful if any of our garden crops should ever be cultivated more 

 than three inches deep, and it is very certain that many crops are 

 injured by cultivating deeply very close to the plants, in which case 

 the roots are cut off near their upper ends and thus wholly destroyed. 

 Cultivation in a period of drouth results in forming a mulch or 

 blanket of dry earth on the surface of the land, which prevents the 

 moisture from passing into the atmosphere, and a rather shallow 

 blanket, say two inches deep, accomplishes this purpose. A com- 

 pact subsoil readily transmits the water upwards to the surface soil, 

 in the same manner that a lamp wick carries the oil to the flame. 

 At the surface the soil water is prevented from evaporating by a 

 blanket of loose earth, and is thus saved in the upper subsoil and 

 lower and middle parts of the furrow slice for the roots of the crop ; 

 loose surface soil is a good non-conductor of water. During the 

 growth of a crop, the surface of the ground should never be left long 

 with a crust on it, but should be stirred after each rain or after 

 artificially watering. 



TOOLS. 



There are a number of one-horse cultivators that are especially 

 adapted for work in the garden. These may be provided with sev- 

 eral sizes of teeth and shovels, and are easily transformed for various 

 kinds of work. In working the crops while they are small the har- 

 row or smaller teeth may be used, and later when the plants become 

 larger the size of the shovels may be increased. Many gardeners, 

 however, prefer to use the harrow teeth at all times. When it is de- 

 sirable to ridge up the soil around a crop, the wings, or hillers, may 

 be put on either side of the cultivator. A one-horse turning plow 

 is useful for running off rows or throwing up ridges. Aside from 

 the horse tools in general use on the farm, there are only one or two 

 cultivators that will be required for the garden, and these are not 

 expensive. 



The outfit of hand tools for the garden should include a spade, 

 a spading fork, a cut-steel rake, a 10-foot measuring pole, a line for 

 laying off rows, a standard hoe, a narrow hoe, dibbles, a trowel, an 

 assortment of hand weeders, a watering can, a wheelbarrow, and if 

 the work is to be done largely by hand the outfit should also include 

 some form of wheel hoe, of which there are a number on the market. 



MULCHING. 



The term mulch as generally used means a layer of litter 

 applied to the surface of the ground primarily for the purpose of 

 retarding evaporation from the soil. Mulches are thus used as a 

 substitute for cultivation to conserve the moisture in the soil in 

 summer and to keep down weeds. They are also used as winter and 

 spring coverings for low-growing small fruits to retard flowering 

 and fruiting and thus to protect them from injury by late frosts. 



