THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



every five, and generally two out of every five, crops 

 are reduced by drought so largely as to bring down 

 the farmers' profits to a meager minimum, if not to 

 wipe them out altogether. 



It must, however, be noted that the land-owner 

 can supply his crops with a very large amount of 

 moisture without resort to an irrigation system. 

 The full effect of ditching and of cultivating — 

 that is, stirring the soil, has never yet been fully ap- 

 preciated by gardeners and farmers. Running the 

 cultivator all summer keeps the soil loose and re- 

 tentive of moisture. In very many cases this is all 

 that you will require in the humid states. We 

 must, however, place great emphasis on the fre- 

 quency with which the work is done. In berry 

 gardens, and in vegetable gardens, the usual cus- 

 tom of cultivating once or twice does not begin to 

 cover the requirements of even an ordinary year. 

 The work should be begun early in the spring, and 

 the cultivator kept running until the crops are about 

 ready for harvesting. Bear in mind that about 

 fifty per cent of ordinary soil is not soil at all, but 

 space filled with water and air. What we want is 

 to keep the soil in such a condition that it can be 

 very full of these water cells — ^constantly refilled 



[70] 



