PLANTS AND CULTIVATION 



stiff and heavy soils by draining them. Thus they be- 

 come "deeper," warmer, finer and consequently more 

 easily penetrated by the tiny hairlike rootlets that are 

 the actual feeders. 



Plants growing as specimens — that is shrubs or 

 flowers set by themselves and not in a bed or border — 

 need this same treatment and respond to it with grati- 

 tude almost as marked as the humbler garden stuff 

 shows. Even trees appreciate the loosening of the 

 earth around their trunks. Indoor pot plants, too, 

 should be included. In fact one should cultivate the 

 habit of disturbing the surface soil around practically 

 everything that grows, for tillage is a requisite first, 

 last, and all the time, to which everything else is sec- 

 ondary. 



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