SURROUNDINGS OF THE HOME 



243 



In the care of a garden as in the affairs of life generally 

 initiative is accounted an indispensable trait in any one who 

 would succeed. The power of initiative is sometimes said 

 to be an ability to see what needs to be done, a readiness to 

 undertake it, and an industry and perseverance that accom- 

 plishes what is undertaken. No success is achieved without 

 it in any of the pursuits of life whether 

 professional, financial, social, or political. 



Much of the farmer's success with crops 

 is secured by doing on a larger scale what 

 must be done in the care of a garden. 

 The soil must be in suitable condition as a 

 seed bed that the young and growing 

 plants may thrive from the time the seeds 

 germinate. It must contain the needed 

 food material in available soluble form. 

 There must be the necessary cultivation 

 of the surface soil so that the supply of 

 moisture in the ground is sufficiently 

 conserved to provide for the needs of 

 the growing plants. Weeds that ap- 

 propriate the supply of food material, ma s nified - 

 and that rob the crop of available soil water during the 

 growing season, must be kept down. Then, too, failure is 

 sure to follow the use of seeds of poor quality and of im- 

 paired powers of germination. 



Any cultivation of the soil must be so suited to the crop 

 and to changing weather conditions as to preserve a texture 

 in which the rootlets and root-hairs may everywhere pene- 

 trate it with ease. The root system of a tree is likely to be 

 more wide-spreading than its branches, with innumerable 

 rootlets penetrating in every direction all the soil round 

 about the tree. There is reason to believe that when a plant 

 is uprooted even with considerable care a very large part 



FIG. 78. Root- 

 hairs on corn seedling 



