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PLANTS AND CULTIVATION 



T T 7"HEN plants have reached maturity or approach it; 

 VV whether flower, fruit or vegetable, watch them 

 closely and do not withdraw constant care from them. 

 Volumes written about them could not cover, compre- 

 hensively, all their little queernesses and strange freaks. 

 Each one seems almost a problem by itself, sprung 

 up from the ground to show some new phase of 

 Mother Nature's ingenuity, and each gardener must 

 learn by his own experience how to meet the par- 

 ticular emergencies arising from the combination of 

 soil, weather and plant with which he has to deal. 



But while maturing plants differ in their require- 

 ments greatly and each must be studied by itself, there 

 is one thing that is appreciated by all alike, and that is 

 tillage. The man with the hoe, and the rake, and the 

 cultivator, is the being they hail as friend, be sure of 

 that. Indeed this stirring of the soil is so great a benefit 

 that one of the most ancient garden maxims says 

 "tillage is manure." 



It is not alone to keep the weeds down, however, 

 that this stirring of the surface must be kept up, 

 surprising as it may seem and contrary to popular 



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