75 



evaporate under the agency of sun-heat and wind, it accumulates 

 in the layer of soil in which the roots feed, moistening it, keeping 

 it cool, and dissolving the fertilising elements contained in the soil, 

 thus favouring root-growth, which has such a direct influence on 

 the development of the plant, and, consequently, on the yield of 

 the crop. It is essential, however, in order to achieve this end, 

 that the surface soil should be as well pulverised as possible, and 

 not ripped up into coarse clods. This would allow of the pene- 

 tration into the deeper layers of the soil of too much heat and 

 of the desiccating wind which, by evaporating what amount of 

 moisture is continuously rising under the action of capillary force, 

 would frustrate the object, of the grower to keep in the ground the 

 moisture necessary to dissolve plant food and prepare it for the 

 roots, which can only utilise it when presented to them in the liquid 

 form. A well cultivated field is also better prepared to absorb and 

 imbibe whatever amount of water comes down in rainy weather, 

 instead of allowing it to run to waste on a hardened crust into the 

 drains or the gullies which carry it away to the rivers. Loose earth 

 acts as a sponge which gets permeated during the night by the 

 damp air, condenses and retains its moisture, and freshens up the 

 crop. 



The thorough cultivation of the soil answers, moreover, another 

 object. 



It prevents the plant growing a meshwork of tender rootlets 

 close up to the surface, and enables the deeper seated roots to hold 

 their own and carry on their functions under the most favourable 

 circumstances. In vine and fruit growing, the cultivation of the 

 soil should be so regulated that the principal roots of the plant are 

 not injured and torn off ; it should be deeper in hot and dry localities 

 where surface roots are more liable to get scorched and desiccated 

 in times of drought, than in moister and cooler districts. A 

 maximum of six inches in dry and hot places, and four to five 

 inches in moister localities, is deep enough for all purposes. Unless 

 this cultivation is every year carried out, the surface-feeding rootlets 

 will soon assume upon themselves the duty of foraging for the 

 maintenance of the plant, and thus finally cause the gradual wither- 

 ing up and atrophy of the deeper-seated roots. The result of sub- 

 sequent cultivation, followed up by intense summer heat, may well 

 be imagined. The superficial rootlets having been destroyed by the 

 field implements, it might happen that the deeper ones would not 

 prove equal to the tax suddenly thrown upon them alter having 

 been out of working order as it were, and the result on the} plant 

 would soon make itself only too apparent, j _Jj[ !TU!1 



To sum up, the rationale of summer cultivation consists in 

 destroying the thirsty and hungry weeds ; in intercepting the 

 upward motion of moisture from the subsoil, and storing it up in 

 the feeding layer of earth round the roots of plants ; in enabling 

 the soil to soak in and condense more water ; in sweetening it by 

 promoting the ready access of the atmospheric air; in hindering 

 and preventing the invasion and propagation of noxious insects by 



