A Soil Mulch Is of Practical Benefit 37 



The garden -rake should have the handle six feet 

 long, and while in use it should be held near the end of 

 the handle in order to give full play to the teeth. It 

 should be alternately pushed and pulled, both in pre- 

 paring the seed-bed and cultivating the plants. If the 

 surface about the plants is raked as soon after each rain 

 as the soil is in condition to be cultivated, very little 

 other cultivation will be required, and less rain will be 

 needed to produce satisfactory crops. This is true also 

 of field crops, the horse -cultivator or heel -scrape taking 

 the place of the rake in the garden. 



Soil Mulch. — We often resort to the expensive process 

 of mulching our plants with straw to retain moisture 

 during the summer. This is practicable only on a small 

 scale, while the whole garden or the whole field may be 

 as effectively mulched with pulverized soil by stirring 

 the surface two inches deep after each rain, preventing 

 the formation of a crust, breaking the capillary tubes 

 through which, if undisturbed, the moisture rises and 

 escapes into the air. This acts on the same principle as 

 the straw mulch, and is more satisfactory. The straw 

 retains the soil moisture by checking its evaporation. 

 The soil mulch acts as a blanket does on the horse when 

 he comes in from a drive wet with sweat. The blanket 

 checks the evaporation from the body of the animal and 

 thus prevents sudden cooling, with its possible injurious 

 effects. The soil mulch acts as a blanket in preventing 

 the evaporation of moisture from the surface of the soil, 

 retaining it beneath the mulch, where it serves to dissolve 

 the plant -food and convey it into the circulation of the 

 plant. 



