June : Second Week 



FIGHTING DRY WEATHER: MULCHING; WATER- 

 ING; MODERN IRRIGATION 



Drought is only the acute form of a chronic summer 

 garden disease — lack of soil moisture. Dry weather is the 

 most insidious and the most effective enemy of big crops. 

 Potato bugs may cut down your crop of potatoes; possibly 

 squash borers will get all your squashes; but dry weather 

 attacks every vegetable in the garden and cuts down the 

 yield of every one. 



Lack of moisture prevents maximum crops more often 

 than lack of plant food. Experiments have shown that a 

 fifty per cent saturation of the soil is ideal for growth. 

 During June, July, August, and often September, probably 

 not one garden in a hundred is, under natural conditions, 

 saturated to that degree a quarter of the time. Therefore 

 the intelUgent gardener will endeavor during the summer 

 months to keep up to the highest possible point the amount 

 of moisture in his garden soil. 



Only two treatments are possible in fighting dry soil. The 

 first, except in seasons of more than normal rainfall, can be 

 only partially successful in the great majority of gardens. 

 It is to handle the soil in such a way that every drop of 

 water is conserved and utilized as efficiently as possible. 

 The second treatment is to add water by artificial means. 

 Thanks to the development of overhead irrigation during 

 the past few years, it is now possible for the small gardener, 

 no matter where his garden may be situated, to apply 

 water copiously and with very little effort to his growing 

 crops, provided only he has the water available for use. 



The first essential in conserving such moisture as Nature 

 does supply is frequent cultivation, with tliat particular 



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