14 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



the North, is destructive of fertility at the South and is 

 not advisable. 



CULTIVATION. 



The land having been properly prepared by plow- 

 ing, and sufficiently manured, and the crop planted 

 with regard to the capacity of the soil, the most im- 

 portant matter to the farmer is, thorough culture, or 

 keeping the earth fine and mellow among the plants. 

 Stirring the soil can scarcely be repeated too often during 

 the earlier periods of growth, or until there is danger of 

 injury to the roots or to the tops of growing plants by 

 the cultivator. The ground may be too wet, but never 

 too dry, for stirring; because the more frequently it is 

 broken up, fined and aerated, the more moisture will the 

 soil absorb from the atmosphere. This is an operation 

 that should be performed after every rain, sufficient 

 to cause incrustation or baking, which would prevent a 

 free admission of air into the soil. The most obvious 

 benefit of stirring the soil is, the destruction of weeds; 

 for no crop can become remunerative, if crowded by 

 weeds which deprive it of air, light, moisture, and even 

 a part of the fertility of the soil. A war of extermination 

 should be waged against weeds, although at times they 

 become a necessary evil to the farmer who only cultivates 

 the soil between the rows. Breaking the lumps gives 

 free scope to the finer roots to secure all the available 

 nutriment within the extent of their ramifications, as 

 these finer roots are not capable of penetrating large 

 clods, and thus may be debarred from reaching a large 

 part of the food contained in the soil. Thorough and 

 frequent culture of the soil admits air to the rootlets of 

 the growing plant; it increases the capillary attraction 

 of the soil, by which its humidity is rendered more uni- 

 form; by presenting a larger number of points of radia- 



