208 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



September, 



THE COMPLETE GARDEN.' 



IX. 



BY A WELL-KNOWN HORTICULTtTRIST. 



(.Continued from page 189.) 

 THE CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 



No one operation can better serve to dis- 

 tinguish the successful gardener than that 

 having to do with the preparation and after 

 care bestowed upon the land he tills. One 

 may underdrain to perfection and manure 

 in abundance, but if good tillage is lacking the 

 best results also will be lacking. Indeed, good 

 tillage may in large measure make up for 

 various other soil defects, as is shown by 

 the fact that land somewhat impoverished 

 may with the best tillage be made to 

 exceed in fruitfulneas that which is rich 

 but poorly worked. This is reasonable. 

 Deep and thorough preparation gives 

 more space to the roots, promoting vigor 

 at the same time that it opens up larger 

 stores of food. The better the culture 

 the more rain also is absorbed, and the 

 better is moisture conserved for the wants 

 of plants in times of drought. Deep and 

 thorough tillage is therefore essential to 

 that high culture which should chai'ac- 

 terize every complete garden. 



Digging and Trenching. The means 

 of culture in gardeuing are digging, plow- 

 ing, raking, harrowing, rolling, etc., in 

 preparing the soil, and hoeing, cultivat- 

 ing, shallow digging or plowing for after 

 culture. In small plots the first inverting 

 of the soil for burying the surface plants, 

 exposing a new top and pulverization 

 is done with the spade or digging fork. 

 To be well performed the first prepara- 

 tion should be two spades deep, with manure 

 worked into the soil throughout. Such double 

 spading is known as trenching, the second depth 

 having to do with working over the subsoil 

 in the trench formed by the surface spading. 

 The comparative effect of digging to a single 

 or double depth (trenching) , is shown in the 

 annexed figures 26 and 27. I think these en- 

 gravings give a better idea than words could 

 of the decided advantage secured to all plants 

 and trees by thorough trenching. 



The old idea of trenching, stUl advocated by 

 some foreign gardeners, involved the bringing 

 up of the subsoil to the surface, incorporating 

 it more or less with the layer of surface soil. 

 But this system is now generally opposed, 

 the common-sense principle that the good sur- 

 face soil should be kept at the surface prevail- 

 ing instead. Good culture demands that the 

 subsoil be broken up, somewhat manured, and 

 perhaiJS gradually be mixed with the surface 

 stratum, all to accommodate far reaching roots 

 and to retain and equalize moisture. Of two 

 methods of trenching to be described, the first 

 is one which I am not aware is generally prac- 

 ticed, although on our own grounds it has of 

 late years been the favorite course, being sim- 



be made clear by reference to figure 30. First 

 a trench, represented by space A, and some two 

 or three feet wide,is made at one end of the plat 

 to extend entirely across the plat, the loose soil 

 being thrown out on the side away from the 

 part to be trenched. Then the exposed sub- 

 soil shown by B is turned over after the ordin- 

 ary manner of digging, turning in some ma- 

 nure also. Next the surface strata, represented 

 by C, is turned over on the loosened subsoil B, 

 after which the newly exposed surface of D 

 receives the same treatment as that given to 

 B, and so on across the plat. The last trench 



depth of 11 iTiches. 



DIGGING AND TRENCHING: 



CROSS SECTION VIEW. 



Fig. 31. A Subsoil Plow. 



pie and economical of labor. This consists in 

 keeping the trench of the top spit a foot or 

 more wide (Fig. 27), and after scattering 

 manure in the bottom simply spading over the 

 subsoil from end to end of each trench, and be- 

 fore a new line of surface soil is turned over. 

 With two men at the job, one taking the upper 

 the other the lower spits, following each other 

 across the plot, the work proceeds about as fast 

 as common digging. The other method may 



• Copyright, 1887, by Popular Gardening PubilBhing Co. 



PLOWING AND SUBSOILING: CROSS SECTION VIEW. 



opened is filled by wheeling the surface soil 

 first thrown out (A) into this. 



Trenching once thoroughly done will con- 

 tinue to benefit the crops of the land for many 

 years. In the case of open plots, flower beds, 

 etc., which receive surface digging annually 

 the trenching might, however, be repeated once 

 in three or fom- years with desirable results. 

 While either trenching or subsoiling (to be 

 presently' considered) are to be recommended 

 for all parts of the garden, lawn, flower beds, 

 vegetable and fruit areas, in case these 

 cannot be applied throughout at the start, they 

 should first be applied where the more perma- 

 nent improvements, such as trees, shmbs, 

 lawns, etc., are to come, extending to other 

 parts as time will permit. On grounds where 

 an abundance of water is available for lawn 

 sprinkling throughout dry weather, the need of 

 trenching is not very apparent, and here there 

 would be no call for it beyond some special 

 prepai'ation needed for trees, flower beds, etc. 

 In the case of trees, the writer never sets one 

 in any location without first thoroughly trench- 

 ing the soU underneath and for some distance 

 beyond the circumference of the roots. And 

 this, it may be said, is one secret of the uni- 

 formly free and rapid growth which he secm'es 

 to all the trees he plants. 



Both in digging and trenching a uniform 

 depth should be aimed for throughout. It is 

 usual to gauge this by the spade blade, thrust- 

 ing this in nearly vertically to its full length. 

 To keep the trench line tolerablj- straight and 

 the trenches of an even width will give a 

 better finish to the work. Digging when the 

 direct object is pulverization is best performed 

 when the soU is somewhat dry ; but for the 

 purpose of securing the benefits of air and frost 

 to the land, as in the case of late autumn spad- 

 ing, then a degree of moisture and tenacity is 

 more favorable to clods and these should be 

 left unbroken. By spring the frost will have 

 done the work of pulverizing very efl^ectively, 

 not to mention other benefits. Light soils may 

 be worked at times when owing to wetness it 

 would be unwise to tread on that of a clayey 

 nature. Manure is applied in digging, either 

 by spreading over the entire surface ahead of 

 the spading or else over the ti'ench bottoms and 

 sides as one after another course opens. 



Plowing and Subsoiling. These for areas 

 large enough to admit of horses turning 

 around on them have in view the same end as 



digging and trenching for smaller ones. And 

 with this added advantage that the surface 

 soil becomes better pulverized than it is possi- 

 ble to have done with the spade, and at a frac- 

 tion of the cost. But the subsoil stratum by 

 trenching receives an advantage over that of 

 subsoil plowing, in that it becomes more com- 

 pletely broken, and may more readily have 

 manure mixed with it. If therefore land 

 could once be thoroughly spade trenched and 

 after that receive an annual suface plowing, 

 with once in three years a cross subsoUing, a 

 high state of cultivation would be reached. 

 For ordinary purposes, on good sized areas, 

 ^ however, simple plowing and subsoiling 

 are looked upon as yielding very thorough 

 tillage. Figures 38 and 29 show cross 

 sections of land simply plowed and of 

 that plowed and subsoiled respectively. 



The fact that plowing of garden plots 

 is so quickly effected by horse power 

 makes it easier to plow the same land re- 

 peatedly between seasons with advantage. 

 If, for instance, an area can be manured, 

 ^ plowed and subsoiled late in the fall, leav- 

 ~^ ing the surface rough, then in the spring 

 apply another coat of manure, this to be 

 followed by cross plowing and subsoiling, 

 the best possible condition of tillage 

 would be secured. Where ground that 

 has never been used for gardening is be- 

 ing fitted up it is well to devote it for the 

 ■ 'tiinij first season to some coarser crop, like 

 Potatoes or Corn. 

 In ordinary subsoil plowing the lower 

 stratum of soil is not inverted, but is simply 

 loosened by running the plow of figure 31 in 

 the bottom of the trench, to a depth of from 

 to 13 inches. Its effect on the soil is shown by 

 figure 39 as compared with figure 28, the tracks 

 of the subsoiler being clearly shown in the 

 former. There is another stj-le of plow in use, 

 called the lifting subsoil plow, and this one 

 tends to mix the soil of the lower stratum more 

 or less with that of the upper with good 

 results. While all drained soils are improved 

 for crops by subsoiling and trenching exper- 

 ience shows that such as happens to be wet and 

 without drainage is not, but rather the reverse, 

 for here the broken sub-layer retains the wet- 

 ness and becomes sodden. 



Subsequent Culture. If that thorough 

 culture which provides a deep, well-tilled soil 

 at the beginning is not carried to the growing 

 crop afterwards the first labor and expense in- 

 curred may be quite lost. Good after culture 

 implies the idea of keeping the surface mellow 

 and preventing the growth of weeds. A loose 

 layer of soil, several inches in depth, is not only 

 favorable to the admission of the air, that is 

 needed by the roots of growing plants in per- 

 forming their functions, but it is one of the best 

 possible preventives against the bad effects of 

 drought, for it serves as a mulch in retaining 



f^' 



Fig. 30. Outline to illustrate ivide Trenching . 

 what there is in the soil. The keeping down 

 of all weeds is no less important, as these, 

 with being strong, succulent growers, if 

 allowed to grow, absorb much of the food and 

 moisture belonging to the regular crop. The 

 garden soil should therefore, for best results, 

 be hoed, raked, or cultivated every week or 

 two, so long as the size of the crop will admit, 

 giving a preference for doing the work directly 

 after heavy rains, that the hurtful crust formed 

 by the beating of the rain may be quickly 

 broken up. The good effects of repeatedly cul- 

 tivating the surface is quite as apparent in the 

 case of trees and shrubs, either fruit or orna- 

 mental, as in succulent growths. Indeed, 

 thorough culture, both as to the preparatory 

 work and regularly for years afterwards, is the 

 main secret of securing that satisfactory growth 

 in which all good cultivators delight. 



