4 
Laheview Seed Farm, Rochester, N. Y. 
STIKRIJSTG- THE SOIL. 
Next in importance to plenty of manure is frequent " stirring 
the soil." So essential is the latter that some gardeners insist 
that frequent stirring the soil will produce larger crops without 
manure, than poor cultivation with manure. While I am satis- 
fied that nothing can take the place of manure, I am equally well 
satisfied that a soil frequently 'stirred will produce much better 
crops than the same soil that is only seldom cultivated. For 
some crops it is absolutely essential. I know a large and success- 
ful grower of caobages who keeps his cultivator running through 
his crop two or three times a week, so long as he can get between 
the rows. Frequent stirring keeps the soil open and porous, so 
that it admits the air freely and the loose surface acts as a mulch 
to keep the lower soil moist and cool. If you want big crops 
keep the surface soil loose and friable. 
DEA1MIG THE BOIJL. 
Either in farming or gardening the proper drainage of the 
soil is of the first importance. Many a farmer goes on year after 
vear, raising poor crops that pay him no profit, simply because 
the soil is not properly drained. I have, in more than one in- 
stance, been repaid the cost of draining a field by the increase in 
the first crop. 
Drainage Warms the Soil. It is stated on good authority 
that drainage raises the temperature of the soil 15°. This is an 
important item in the early spring. A difference of 15° in the 
temperature of the soil would save much early planted seed from 
rotting, and much consequent replanting. 
Drainage Lengthens the Season for Work and for the 
Growing Crops. This cannot be overestimated in our northern 
climate and short summers. A difference of two weeks will often 
prove the difference between success and failure of a crop. I 
have land on my farm that formeriy was so wet that it seldom 
could be planted till about the first of June, but since being 
drained it is the first land that we work in the spring— often 
during the month of April. 
Drained Land is Dryer in a Wet Season and Holds 
Moisture Longer in a Dry Season. It is also lighter to work, 
and can be worked sooner after heavy rains than undrained land. 
A judicious investment in tile drains is often the very best in- 
vestment a gardener or farmer can make. It will pay better 
than government bonds. 
HOT-BEOS. 
The best heating material that is easily available is fresh 
horse manure, containing a liberal quantity of bedding. Such 
manure, if thrown into a loose pile will heat violently and 
unevenly and will soon become cold. What is wanted in the 
hot-bed is a steady but moderate and lasting heat. To secure 
this the manure should be forked over and thrown into a loose 
pile, which should remain undisturbed for a few days and then 
be forked over again, piled and allowed to heat a second time, 
when after a sew days more it will be ready for use. The 
object of this repeated forking over and piling is to get the whole 
mass into a uniform degree of fermentation. 
The proper depth of the bed will vary with the climate, sea- 
son, and the kind of plants to be raised. A shallow bed will 
give a quick sharp heat and soon subside ; a deeper one, if well 
made, will heat more moderately but continue much longer. 
For general purposes a bed one and a half to two feet deep will 
be the best. - 
The bed should be allowed to stand a few days with the 
sash partially open, to allow the steam and rank heat to pass off. 
The heat will at first be quite violent, frequently rising in the 
first few days to 120 degrees, but it soon subsides, and when it 
recedes to 90 degrees the earth may be put in and the seeds 
planted. 
The importance of allowing this gross heat to pass off before 
planting the seeds is very great, as every season thousands of hot 
beds are failures, and their builders blame the seedsmen for send- 
ing them poor seed, when the real difficulty was that their seeds 
were burnt up by this first heat. 
