Weeding and Transplanting 



plants, and that half-way measures will not 

 count. If you do not give the weeds to under- 

 stand that they will not be tolerated, they will 

 most surely get the start of you in the long 

 run, and every weed that is allowed to perfect 

 seed will stock the ground with its progeny 

 for the coming season. Get the garden clean 

 at the beginning of the season and keep it so, 

 and you will have done away with a good deal 

 of the work that would have to be done next 

 year, if you w^ere to compromise with weeds 

 this year. Make it a rule to pull up or cut off 

 every weed as soon as discovered. 



The use of the cultivator should be continued 

 throughout the greater part of the season, or 

 until the vegetables have begun to mature. 

 It is a scientific fact that vegetable gro^rth is 

 greatly benefited by a free admission of air to 

 the roots. This is one of the good results of 

 keeping the soil light and porous. Another 

 and the miost important is that in dry weather a 

 frequently stirred soil absorbs whatever moist- 

 ure there is in the air. It acts like a sponge. 

 But if the soil is allowed to crust over, under 

 the mistaken idea that stirring would permit 

 all the moisture in it to evaporate, crops will 



63 



