SMALL FRUITS AND HOW TO GROW THBM 
7 
office as the stomach and lung's of an animal. 
They dig-est this food and pass it down next 
to the bark where the cells are built up and 
thus the size of plant is increased. We call 
it g-rowing-. 
We first go over the ground with a spading 
or disk harrow and tear it up. If you do 
not have these tools plow five or six inches 
deep, then roll to mash lumps and then 
take the Acme or other harrow and go over 
it until it is as fine as sifted ashes. Then 
plow as deeply as you can without bringing 
up too much of the lower subsoil. Follow 
the plow with the subsoiler in the same 
furrow which breaks up the lower strata 
but does not bring it to the surface, yet 
separates its particles so they will hold from 
ten to twenty times as much water as they 
would in their natural dense condition, thus 
creating a reservoir under each plant to 
carry you over the drouthy weeks of sum- 
mer. Tlie good effects of this breaking: 
up of the lower soil will be seen in land for 
several years afterwards. A light g-ravelly 
or porous soil which already holds all the 
water that can be suspended by adhesion 
and capillarity would not be benefited by 
subsoiling. If you can readily dig the sub- 
soil with your hands, I should regard it as 
sufficiently porous and would not subsoil; 
but if you could not do so use the subsoiler 
by all means. 
The Warfield. 
WHY WE PLOW AND SUB- 
SOIL. 
There are two reasons why we plow. If 
all plant food was soluble so the plants 
could use it at once, the rains would quickly 
wash it all out and the land become barren, 
and so to preserve it for the use of plants it 
becomes insoluble in water. At the same 
time a resolvent was provided which should 
make it available in small quantities so that 
the present needs of the growing plants 
could be supplied. This great resolvent is 
the oxygen of the atmosphere, and must 
come in contact with every particle of earth, 
before the plant can take up the food. 
The lower subsoil contains an immense 
amount of plant food washed down into it 
where it becomes insoluble and remains 
there. By breaking- up the subsoil we admit 
the air dissolving- this food and the water 
returning to the surface b> capillary attrac- 
tion (see engraving) it is carried to the 
upper soil where the plant can use it. 
Again we plow and subsoil because in so 
doing we separate the particles of earth so 
they will contain many times as much 
water as ia their natural dense condition. 
In subsoiling- we actually create a reservoir 
under the plant which will hold enough 
water in suspension which can be conserved 
by surface cultivation to tide us over the 
most protracted drouth. 
iSyiSTvAT'EDeARTHTr; 
1 
DEPTH PLOWED'. 
lo INCHES 
■•.SUB-SOIL: 
to I NCHES ■'. 
One inch cultivated soil sn loose water will not rise 
by capillary attraction. Ten inches plowed and 
firtned so water will rise. Teti inches of reservoir in 
subsoil. 
Water in the soil is moved by two 
forces. First by g-ravitation which draws 
the water down and second by capillary 
attraction (see engraving) which returns it 
to the surface again. Capillary means a 
hair-like tube or minute passag-e. If we 
enlarge the passag-e by separating the parti- 
cles of earth too far apart it would take so 
much water to fill the space that this force 
would be overcome by gravitation and no 
water would rise. Thus when we plow and 
leave the ground very loose it soon dries out. 
Walter cannot come up from below and free 
air finds its way through the opening-s and 
carries the water off. 
So immediately after plowing, before the 
water has time to get away we go over it 
with a roller and press the particles of earth 
together so as to exclude this circulating- 
air and make these passages so small that 
capillary attraction will bring- the water up 
to the surface. 
Why we cultivate. Now when the 
water comes up if it reaches the surface so 
as to come in contact with the bright sun it 
will readily pass off into the air. We want 
it to come within an inch or so of the surface 
of the ground so as to nourish all the roots 
