30 GARDEN TILLAGE. 



while corn roots have been followed to a depth of four feet. 

 It is probable that in good land almost any of our garden 

 crops will send their roots eighteen or more inches deep. 



Ridging the Land. — If the land is liable to be too wet for 

 planting in early spring, it is sometimes a good practice in 

 plowing it to turn several furrows back to back, and thus 

 leave the land in ridges over winter. If these ridges, or 

 "lands," are made fifteen or twenty feet wide, they may be 

 dragged and planted in the spring without further plowing. 

 For some crops it is often best to open the furrows again in 



\, 





Figure 4.— Cross section of ridged land. 



the spring and thus leave the land level. This method of 

 treatment permits of working the land much earlier in the 

 spring than it otherwise could be worked if plowed flat. It 

 also leaves the soil in very good shape for the action of frost 

 on its particles during the winter. For early crops on flat or 

 heavy soils, it is a most desirable treatment. The objection 

 to it is that if not turned back in the spring the dead furrows 

 interfere with cultivation; if the land is thus turned back in 

 the spring, it may be left too loose. But admitting these ob- 

 jections, even then there are often cases where this treatment 

 would be very desirable. It should be borne in mind, too, in 

 cultivating the garden that, while the soil in it may be too 

 loose, it cannot be too rich or too deep, nor can the subsoil 

 if not of too impervious a nature be too compact, and yet it 

 must be loose enough to permit of the roots entering it and 

 the water percolating through it. 



General Cultivation of Garden Crops.— The methods to be 

 pursued in the general cultivation of garden crops vary 

 somewhat according to the soil, season and crop. However, 

 it is very important to remember that the destruction of weeds 

 is but a small part of the work of cultivation. The most im- 

 portant part in this section is to so fit the soil that it may 

 best withstand drought. This is accomplished by frequent 



