UO AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



CROP RIDGING. 



Ridging for crop is performed in the preparation of the land 

 for sowing or planting by first opening a furrow with the plow 

 or spade, in which the manure intended for the crop is spread 

 thickly, whereupon the two furrows, as in ordinary ridging, 

 are thrown over it ; the ridges being then partially flattened 

 by running a rake or hook along each, or passing over them 

 the back of a wide, light harrow, or a mere bar, or a roller, if 

 the nature of the manure seem to require it, the seed is sown 

 or planted along the centre, and covered in one of the ordinary 

 modes. In ridging potatoes the seed is usually laid immedi- 

 ately upon the manure, and then covered and finished as above 

 directed. Ridging for crop is often found economical and ad- 

 vantageous in mild, moist climates or on wet soils, but under 

 all ordinary circumstances " flat culture" is preferable. 



HILLING. 



In agriculture, hilling is, like ridging, opposed to flat cul- 

 ture, but difiers from ridging in that the hill is formed by 

 throwing furrows together both ways by cross plowing. 



When the crop is to be manured in the hill, deep furrows 

 are run each way at suitable distances, and the manure, being 

 carted on, is dropped into the furrow at the point of intersec- 

 tion. The planting of the crop is then completed either by 

 dropping the seed directly upon the manure, as for potatoes, 

 or by first hoeing over the manure a slight coat of earth, upon 

 which the seed, as in corn or pole beans, is dropped, and the 

 covering of both seed and manure completed with the hoe ; or 

 the manure, if coarse, is first covered by throwing together two 

 furrows over it, as in ridging, and then planting the crop upon 

 it with the hoe or other implement, the hills proper being 

 formed in the after cultivation of the crop. 



In gardening, and to some extent in farming also, the term 

 " hilling" has become so far modified in its meaning as not 

 necessarily to imply that the earth is materially gathered 

 around the plants, but simply that the plants themselves are 

 set, or the seeds planted in small clumps of three, or four, or 



