112 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



upon the firm, unbroken soil and then thoroughly disking it 

 in, no matter how weedy ; for that places the vegetable mat- 

 ter just where nature does, in abandoned fields and in the 

 woods, thus adding to their fertility from year to year. But 

 after being thus disked in, the ground should be thoroughly 

 rolled, the oftener the better. Such treatment would ban- 

 ish entirely from all well-drained soils every form of rust, 

 mildew and plant blight, by withholding the conditions of 

 excessive moisture under a high temperature, which facts 

 plainly show are the ones most favorable and necessary to 

 their incubation, and without which they are just as powerless 

 to develop as the yeast germ is in dough, placed in an ice- 

 box or a hot stove. 



