CHAPTER V 

 Function of Cultivation 



Dam the water flowing skyward from the surface soil; 

 Break the surface, keep it broken. This is paying toil; 

 For it holds the water surely where the crop root feeds. 

 Gives the plants abundant moisture to supply their needs. 



— Truefelloiv. 



" Plow deeply, harrow deeply, and cultivate 

 shallow. That is the keynote to success," says 

 W. H. Riddle of Baltimore county, Maryland, " in 

 raising any crop where the ground should be plowed. 

 The deeper the plowing, the larger the bed to hold 

 the rains as they fall. The deep plowing, say, 8 

 to 10 inches, prevents washing, more than shallow, 

 as the more water that is held leaves less to run 

 off the surface. To retain the moisture rub or roll 

 and harrow once as you plow. The earth is like 

 a lamp wick, full of pores, and the moisture is 

 drawn up by the sun, as the flame draws up the 

 oil. Leaving the ground open and rough prevents 

 the escape of moisture ; closing up the top with 

 fine dirt closes up the pores, so that the moisture 

 cannot escape any more than the oil can be drawn 

 up through the smut on the lamp wick. 



" To break up the oil trust we have only to leave 

 our lamp wicks untrimmed, and the oil will always 

 be in the bowl ; so to cover the farm with smut in 

 the shape of fine dirt holds the moisture, instead 

 of letting it be drawn up by the sun to fall down 

 as rain somewhere else. As farmers learn this 

 way of holding moisture they will stop fearing 

 drouth. 



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