I02 Home Vegetable Gardening 



Instead of letting the weeds get away with any 

 plant food, he should be furnishing more, for clean 

 and frequent cultivation will not only break the soil 

 up mechanically, but let in air, moisture and heat 

 — all essential in effecting those chemical changes 

 necessary to convert non-available into available 

 plant food. Long before the science in the case was 

 discovered, the soil cultivators had learned by obser- 

 vation the necessity of keeping the soil nicely 

 loosened about their growing crops. Even the 

 lanky and untutored aborigine saw to it that his 

 squaw not only put a bad fish under the hill of 

 maize but plied her shell hoe over it. Plants need 

 to breathe. Their roots need air. You might as 

 well expect to find the rosy glow of happiness on 

 the wan cheeks of a cotton-mill child slave as to 

 expect to see the luxuriant dark green of healthy 

 plant life in a suffocated garden. 



Important as the question of air is, that of water 

 ranks beside it. You may not see at first what the 

 matter of frequent cultivation has to do with water. 

 But let us stop a moment and look into it. Take a 

 strip of blotting paper, dip one end in water, and 

 watch the moisture run up hill, soak up through 

 the blotter. The scientists have labeled that "capil- 

 lary attraction" — the water crawls up little invisible 

 tubes formed by the texture of the blotter. Now 

 take a similar piece, cut it across, hold the two cut 



