Chapter X 



THE CULTIVATION OF VEGETABLES 



BEFORE taking up the garden vegetables in- 

 dividually, I shall outline the general prac- 

 tice of cultivation, which applies to all. 

 The purposes of cultivation are three — to get rid 

 of weeds, and to stimulate growth by ( i ) letting air 

 into the soil and freeing unavailable plant food, and 

 (2) by conserving moisture. 



As to weeds, the gardener of any experience need 



not be told the importance of keeping his crops clean. 



He has learned from bitter and costly experience 



the price of letting them get anything resembling a 



start. He knows that one or two days' growth, after 



they are well up, followed perhaps by a day or so 



of rain, may easily double or treble the work of 



cleaning a patch of onions or carrots, and that where 



weeds have attained any size they cannot be taken 



out of sowed crops without doing a great deal of 



injury. He also realizes, or should, that every day's 



growth means just so much available plant food 



stolen from under the very roots of his legitimate 



crops. 



(101) 



