THE VEGETABLE AKD RMALL-EKUIT GARDEN. 377 



too great a depth with air-spaces not favorable for capillary 

 attraction or presenting a proper seed-bed, nor for root ex- 

 tension. On rather heavy soil, with slope favorable for 

 washing, subsoiling garden-ground is a decided gain in 

 several ways. The pressure of the plow and the tread of 

 the animal below the furrow so impacts the soil at the bot- 

 tom of the usual plowing that in a few years the water 

 from heavy rains cannot quickly penetrate it, giving rise 

 to gullying and washing away of the finer particles of soil 

 to lower levels. It not only holds the rainfall, and largely 

 prevents washing, but it gives a depth of soil that favors 

 carrying plants through our summer periods of drought. 

 Subsoiling also gives best results if done in autumn. If 

 done in spring, it leaves the soil loose and porous to too 

 great a depth. Hence plants will suffer in a dry time far 

 more than on ordinary plowing. 



The deep extension of roots also favors the growth of 

 plants in a dry time in the subsoiled garden. Subsoiling 

 and deep plowing in the fall also benefit crop3 by letting 

 air into the soil that tends to set free the food for plants by 

 chemical action and fermentation. 



385. Garden Culture. — Too many seem to conclude that 

 the main purpose of cultivation is the destruction of weeds. 

 But the fact must be recognized that the dust-blanket 

 between rows, frequently stirred by hand or horse culti- 

 vator, conserves the soil moisture in the early part of the 

 season and the precipitation of summer showers later in 

 the season. In connection with deep fall plowing and 

 subsoiling the surface culture not only conserves moisture, 

 but it admits atmospheric air and warmth. In other 

 words, it favors what King calls soil ventilation, and in 

 addition it furnishes the needed conditions favorable for 

 surface root action in taking up nitrates and liquid plant- 

 food. 



