82 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



extremes to be mastered, and methods are therefore strik- 

 ingly diverse. Tillage prepares the seed bed, facilitates 

 germination and root-extension, and fosters the benign 

 processes of soil warmth and aeration here as elsewhere. 

 It also holds the same relation to soil moisture here as 

 elsewhere, but its services in this particular are more con- 

 spicuous because the need is greater, as intimated in pre- 

 vious chapters. 



The common California conception of the value of till- 

 age naturally seizes upon this aspect of the case and 

 asserts that the chief offices of soil working are first to 

 get as much moisture as possible into the soil and, second, 

 to keep it there. The efficacy of certain ways and times 

 of tillage to assist in the escape of surplus moisture is of 

 course known to those who have this work to do, but the 

 area in which such acts are called for is comparatively 

 small. It is quite important, however, that the vegetable 

 grower should have it in mind and it will be mentioned 

 later. 



TILLAGE TO RECEIVE MOISTURE. 



This involves both time and method. The importance 

 of early work in the garden has been incidentally men- 

 tioned and will be further urged hereafter. With the 

 rainfall-vegetable grower, early plowing of the land, or 

 early digging of the small garden, is the first of a series 

 of timely acts which are neglected at great peril. 



Summer Fallow as Preparation for Vegetable Planting. 

 The best way to be early with one season is to begin in 

 the previous one, if possible. A bare but frequently 

 stirred summer fallow is the best preparation for a gar- 

 den. A piece of stubble or new land deeply plowed and 

 subsoiled and left unharrowed in the fall or early winter, 

 cross-plowed in the spring, and" then worked with a cul- 

 tivator once a month during the dry season, is brought 

 to the opening of the rainfall-garden season in good con- 

 dition from at least three points of view : first, it has been 

 cleaned of many weeds; second, it has been improved in 



