74 VEGETABLE FORCING 
As early in the spring as the ground is dry enough to 
be worked, and after some manure has been applied, use 
a disk or cutaway harrow repeatedly until the sod and 
manure are thoroughly cut up. Then apply as much 
more fresh horse or cow manure as can be turned under 
with a two-horse plow. It may be an advantage for a 
boy to follow the plow with a fork to draw into the 
furrow the manure which would interfere with the next 
furrow slice. By proper management it will be possible 
to plow under 40 tonsor more of manure to the acre. 
After plowing, disk the soil, apply lime if desired, and 
harrow again. More rotten manure, if it is needed, may 
be added at any time during the summer. It may be 
necessary to plow the land two or three times during the 
summer, and the plot should be harrowed often enough 
to thoroughly reduce the fiber. In the stiffer soils, a 
spring-tooth harrow should be used occasionally instead 
of a disk harrow. By September the soil should be in 
prime condition for use. The old soil, when hauled back 
to the field from the greenhouse, furnishes ideal condi- 
tions for market garden crops. But whatever may be 
said regarding the merits of this method of soil prepara- 
tion, it is too expensive to receive the serious considera~- 
tion of extensive commercial growers, although far more 
economical than any of the usual methods of hand 
composting. 
Green manuring.—It is often an advantage to use green 
manures in conjunction with field applications of stable 
manures. This practice will be found of special value in 
naturally poor soil and when liberal quantities of stable 
manure are inaccessible or very expensive. This process 
of increasing the supply of humus may be begun in the 
fall by sowing rye at the rate of three bushels of seed to 
the acre. When the rye is about a foot high the follow- 
ing spring it may be plowed down and followed with 
oats and Canada field peas, or with cowpeas or soy beans. 
