Cultivation. 



117 



devoid of that life which gives vitality and vigor to the plant. The winter 

 mulch need not be laboriously raked from the garden-bed or field, and 

 then carted back again. Begin on one side of a plantation and rake toward 

 the other, until three or four rows and the spaces between them are bare ; 

 then fork the spaces or run the cultivator often the subsoil plow 

 deeply through them, and then immediately, before the moist, newly 

 made surface dries, rake the winter mulch back into its place as a summer 

 mulch. Then take another strip and treat it in like manner, until the 

 generous impulse of spring air and sunshine has been given to the soil of 

 the entire plantation. 



The cut, giving a section of my specimen-bed, shows one row 

 still under its winter covering, one cultivated and ready for the summer 



Three Rows, illustrating early Spring Work. 



mulch, and the third row with this applied, and the plants ready for fruiting. 

 A liberal coat of fine compost was forked in also at the same time, and the 

 resulting crop was enormous. This spring cultivation should be done 

 early as soon as possible after the ground is dry enough to work. The 

 roots of a plant or tree should never be seriously disturbed in the blos- 

 soming or bearing period, and yet I would rather stir the surface, even 

 when my beds were in full bloom, than leave it hard, baked and dry ; for, 

 heed this truth well unless a plant, from the time it blossoms until the 

 fruit matures, has an abundance of moisture, it will fail in almost the 

 exact proportion that moisture fails. A liberal summer mulch under and 

 around the plants not only keeps the fruit clean, but renders a watering 



