n6 Our Farming. 



this is particularly true of light showers in very warm weather. 

 After a few hours it used to seem to me, before I read the explan- 

 ation, that my field was really drier than before, under the above 

 circumstances. So he who is not on time in his making an earth 

 mulch after a shower, not only loses much of that but even more. 

 The question may be asked, How long will a stirred surface form 

 a good mulch ? Until it rains again, if that is within a week or 

 so. Just as soon as it is dry enough after every rain you must 

 prepare the earth mulch at once, if you want to do your best. By 

 dry enough, I mean so dry that your team will not do injury by 

 tramping the soil. One cannot help but waste some water, and 

 tillage implements will not work well, until it dries a little. A day's 

 delay may cost you money and may not, according as season may 

 be afterwards. This we cannot know about and the only proper 

 way is to be always on the safe side. If it does not rain again in 

 about a week, I would stir again anyway, not only to keep weeds 

 down, but to break up the capillarity, as the surface will soon 

 settle together again after being stirred, and not be as good a 

 mulch. "But this is lots of work," someone says. "I have 

 been in the habit of cultivating once a week. Now here you tell 

 me that if I have got this work all done to-day and it rains to- 

 night I must do it right over again." Certainly you must if you 

 want to do your best. I am writing about "our farming" and 

 this is just exactly what I always do, and have done for many years, 

 and it pays wonderfully sometimes. Of course, we do some work 

 for nothing, some years, but there is no other way to grow a good 

 crop when the mass fail and prices are very high as a result. Some 

 cash returns that I could hardly credit myself, and that many 

 others who have not paid attention to these points have unhesi- 

 tatingly called false, have come largely from close attention to this 

 one matter. Merely working a crop so many times in a season 

 will not do any longer in this section. There is a right time to 

 do it, and we need to understand just what we are working for in 

 order to know when that is and then our knowledge must be put 

 into practice. It is claimed on the lighter soils of Western States 

 that tillage is not so important, I do not know. It is even said 

 by some that it is of no use only to kill the weeds. The experi- 

 ments at some stations would seem to give weight to this theory. 

 It is possible that there may be conditions under which this is 

 true ; but they do not exist on my farm nor on a great many 

 others. I would use this earth mulch on every crop I could, but 

 it is more important for potatoes than for corn, for example, 

 as the former crop needs water more. My fruit garden is mulched 

 with straw, because it is less trouble, except the strawberries the 

 first season of their growth.. This first year we keep the earth 

 mulch around them all the time and in the flower beds and around 

 shrubs and trees. In the last chapter I speak of cultivation to hasten 

 evaporation. Sometimes this may be wise. We have had an 



