GARDEN TILLAGE. 



31 



results in the soil. This is a subject of vast importance and 

 one that in the future will receive far more thought than at 

 present. The manure applied to the garden is often coarse and 

 contains many weed seeds and is a fruitful source of weed in- 

 fection. If the manure intended for the garden contains the 

 seeds of weeds it should be piled up and allowed to ferment until 

 the whole mass is thoroughly rotted, which process will kill the 

 weed seeds in it. It is seldom advisable to use fresh manure 

 in the garden, and it should only be applied in this condition 

 when free from weeds and then only for some late maturing 

 ciops, in which case there will be time for it to rot before the 

 crops need it. 



Plowing. — In the western states, where the summers are 

 often very dry, vegetable land should generally be plowed in 

 the autumn so that the subsoil may become sufficiently com- 

 pacted by spring to readily transmit the subsoil moisture to the 

 surface. Such treatment, by forming a dust blanket, retards 

 evaporation from the land during dry autumns and dry winters 

 when there is no snow on the ground. Fall plowing also puts 

 the land in the best shape for the action of the elements and 

 the development of plant food, and may ue a means of killing 

 very many cut worms, white grubs and other insects that winter 

 over in the soil. If plowing is left until spring in this climate 

 it should be done as early as practicable and not so deep as 

 when done in the fall. Deep spring plowing leaves too much of 

 the upper soil loose and not sufficiently compact to enable the 

 subsoil water to easily reach the surface roots — but where irri- 

 gation is practiced there is not much difference in this respect. 

 The soil for the garden should ordinarily be plowed to a depth 

 of about eight inches, yet in the case of some light soils half 

 this depth may be preferable. 



Subsoil Plowing or Subsoiling, are terms applied to the 

 loosening of the land just below where the plow ordinarily goes. 

 In doing this, the subsoil is not brought to the surface, but 

 a special plow is used which follows an ordinary plow. This 

 has no mold board, but has a good point and shoe, and these 

 loosen the subsoil without raising it. This process may be 

 hurtful or of no value to subsoils already so loose as to permit 

 the roots of plants to readily push into them, and should not 



