SJHALL FRUITS AND HOW TO OROVV THEM |: 
9 
•will be incorporated with the soil where the 
plants can use it. Before plowing: rake off 
all coarse straw so that capillary attraction 
which draws water from the lower subsoil 
shall not be cut off. Water will not pass up 
throuR-h a mass of straw if plowed under. 
lit', very i-arel'iil about tliis. If you 
can't g-et stable manure apply broadcast 
from four to eigfht hundred pounds of pure, 
fine Hfround raw bone meal and not over fifty 
bushel-s per acre of unleached hardwood 
ashes and cultivate in before plowing-. 
KOOT PASTUKAOE. 
The ground should be prepared so that 
roots can penetrate and feed in every square 
inch of the upper twelve inches of "the soil, 
and even penetrate deeply into the lower 
strata. The soil must be porous and friable 
so the air can enter it to dissolve the plant 
food and make it available. A Luilip i.s 
l)si<J. Its particles are cemented together 
so no air can get into it and as the food it 
contains is not available the roots will not 
penetrate it. If lumps are turned to the 
bottom of the furrow without being mashed 
they make innumerable holes or air chambers 
through which water cannot come up by 
capillary action and a feeding root will not 
pass through the slightest cavity, so that 
unless we pulverize the first .six inches 
before we plow, the area of root pasturage is 
greatly diminished and no after cultivation 
will compensate for this loss. 
HOW PLANTS FEED. 
It is a mistake to suppose that plants eat 
manure. They do nothing of the kind. 
It must first become thoroughly decomposed, 
actual dirt. Large quantities of any kind 
of raw manure coming directlj' in contact 
with roots of plants is rank poison to them. 
More plants and vines are killed by manur- 
ing in the hill than from any other cause. 
Don't do it. Don't put a lot of matiure 
directly under the hill because it shuts 
off the water from coming up from below. 
Plants take tlu'ir I'ood in the form 
of water having a little mineral substance 
in it. It is sucked up by little hair like roots 
and passes up through the center of the 
stalk to the leaves which perform the same 
office as the stomach and lungs of an animal. 
They digest 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 growing. 
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 deepl)' 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 
summer. Tlie, good olt'ect.s of this 
l>rcakiii}>- up of the lower soil will be 
seen in land for several years afterwards. 
A light gravelly 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 subsoil with j'our 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 Wakfibld. 
WHY AVE 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 u.se 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 
