28 GARDEN TILLAGE. 



ation for best results in the soil. This is a subject of vast 

 importance, and one that in the future will receive far more 

 thought than at present. The manure applied to the garden is 

 often coarse and contains many weed seeds and is a fruitful 

 source of weed infection. If the manure intended for the gar- 

 den contains the seeds of weeds, it should be piled up and al- 

 lowed to ferment until the whole mass is thoroughly rotted, 

 which process will kill the weed seeds in it. It is seldom ad- 

 visable to use fresh manure in the garden, and it should only 

 be applied in this condition when free from weeds and then 

 only for some late maturing crops, in which case there will be 

 time for it to rot before the crops need it. 



Plowing. — In the western states, where the summers are 

 often very dry, vegetable land should generally be plowed in 

 the autumn so that the subsoil may become sufficiently com- 

 pacted by spring to readily transmit the subsoil moisture to 

 the surface. Such treatment, by forming a dust blanket, re- 

 tards evaporation from the land during dry autumns and dry 

 winters when there is no snow on the ground. Fall plowing 

 also puts the land in the best shape for the action of the 

 elements and the development of plant food and may be a 

 means of killing very many cut worms, white grubs and other 

 insects that winter over in the soil. If plowing is left until 

 spring in this climate, it should be done as early as practic- 

 able and not so deep as when done in the fall. Deep spring 

 plowing leaves too much of the upper soil loose and not suf- 

 ficiently compact to enable the subsoil water to easily reach 

 the surface roots — but where irrigation is practiced there is 

 not much difference in this respect. The soil for the garden 

 should ordinarily be plowed to a depth of about eight inches, 

 yet in the case of some light soils half this depth may be 

 preferable. 



Subsoil Plowing, or Subsoiling, is a term applied to the 

 loosening of the land just below where the plow ordinarily 

 goes. In doing this, the subsoil is not brought to the surface, 

 but a special plow is used which follows an ordinary plow. 

 This has no mold board, but has a good point and shoe, and 

 these loosen the subsoil without raising it. This process 

 maybe hurtful or of no value to subsoils so loose as to per- 

 mit the roots of plS^0|»gi|baidily, push into them and should 



A. <&, e^ 



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