Edible Products. 



508 



[♦DECEMBER, 1910, 



and choke the bushes. By the word 

 cultivation not only hoeing is meant, 

 but all operations that tend to keep the 

 soil in such a state that ample plant 

 food is available for all demands made 

 on it. It is no use having the food easily 

 available if the soil is either dry as a 

 bone or water-logged, as the plant must 

 be kept in such a health as to give a 

 return for the trouble. Starting from 

 the new land, first there is the clearing 

 of all jungle, hoeing deep and light, 

 clearing of all weeds, draining, trench 

 hoeing, and manuring. The clearing of 

 jungle once done is not a recurring item 

 unless the garden has been abandoned. 

 Turning to hoeing deep and light, these 

 are the great standby of all cultivation. 

 There is no doubt the constant turning 

 over of the soil does help to keep the 

 plants in health by exposing the soil to 

 air and sun, causing a chemical change 

 in the soil. Taking the different kinds 

 of hoeing— light, medium and heavy— it 

 is well to start with a good deep hoe, 

 the deeper the better. In deep hoeing 

 care should be taken that every part of 

 the surface is broken up in large clods, 

 and the clods turned over the deep side 

 up, A fortnight to a month should then 

 be allowed to permit the clods to dry 

 and get the full effects of the sun and 

 air, not only chemically but physically, 

 making the soil more assimilative to the 



Slant. This broken soil should not be 

 ept too long in this state, as all the 

 moisture would evaporate and leave the 

 soil too dry, especially f the deep 

 hoeing (as is the general custom) is done 

 in the cold weather. The clods should 

 next be pulverised as fine as possible 

 and spread over the surface, care being 

 taken, when this is being done, to pick 

 out all roots, especially of perennial 

 grasses such as sun grass, etc. Not only 

 does this pulverising the soil keep the 

 moisture in, but it prevents the early 

 growth of annual weeds, especially if 

 the clods in hoeing have been well 

 turned over, the deep side up, as the 

 annual seeds are then 8 inches below the 

 surface and could not germinate at that 

 depth, as annual seeds generally want 

 to be planted very close to the surface. 

 This does not mean that no annual 

 seeds will germinate in a garden so hoed, 

 but it delays the germination and lessens 

 the number that are likely to come up. 

 When deep hoeing, care should be taken 

 to pull out trees and ferns growing at 

 the roots of the bushes. In fact, this 

 should be done at every round of hoeing, 

 but special attention must be paid to it 

 while deep hoeing. It is not settled 

 which is the best time of the year to do 

 deep hoeing, as the question of labour 

 intervenes. It is generally done as soon 



as leaf plucking is over so as to get the 

 job done. If the labour question could 

 be got over, the driest time of the year 

 would be the best. March and April 

 would be the time, especially on those 

 gardens that suffer from sun grass. 

 Owing to labour difficulties many 

 gardens can hardly do a round of deep 

 hoeing yearly, but it would be better if 

 two could be given and a lesser number 

 of light hoes, 



Light Hoeing. 



Light hoeing is not as valuable as 

 deep hoeing. In no case should it be 

 done in the dry months, and in any case 

 it should only be resorted to keep down 

 weeds. It should be about 3" or 4" deep 

 and all the clods turned over. In light 

 hoeing to prevent weeds care should be 

 taken to try and catch the weeds at as 

 early a stage as possible. If this cannot 

 be done, the best time after this is when 

 they are just flowering and the seeds 

 begin to set. In a stiff clay soil burying 

 weeds in the latter stage helps to 

 lighten the soil. Trench hoeing has been 

 practised for many years by a few 

 planters, but it has been popularised by 

 Dr. Mann. This should be thoroughly 

 done between every line, about 8" wide 

 and 18" to 24" deep. These trenches 

 should be dug across the drains, care 

 being taken when coming to a drain to 

 stop the trench a foot or so away from 

 the drain. If the trenches opened into 

 the drains, the trenches would become 

 sub-drains, and the substance of the 

 manures would be washed into the 

 drains and rivers as soon as there is a 

 heavy shower. These trenches should 

 be kept open for a while to aerate the 

 soil, and then the manure should be put 

 in and filled up at once. If ordinary 

 cow-dung and wood ashes are used about 

 40 maunds per acre would be as little as 

 could be of advantage. If the bushes 

 are in poor health, more of course 

 would be necessary. The best way to 

 apply this manure is to put in as much 

 as you can, and as often as you can, the 

 fresher the better. A tea bush cannot 

 have too much manure practically. 

 While on the subject of cow-dung 

 manure and ashes, it is surprising the 

 few gardens that take the trouble to 

 gather the manures and ashes daily in 

 covered pits. Too much care cannot be 

 taken that this is done daily. It is only 

 wanton waste to allow the ashes of 

 thousands of maunds of wood to be left 

 in the rain to be washed into the rivers. 

 It is hardly credible that gardeners have 

 been known to leave their cow manure 

 and ashes and purchase expensive chemi- 

 cal manures to manure the gardens with. 



