SMALL FRUITS AND HOW HE GROWS THEM 
nick Ohmer 
the leaves by a peculiar force known as osmosis. 
The leaves are the stomach and lungs of the plant 
and they digest the food by breathing the Vfater 
away through little mouths on the under side of 
the leaves called stoniatas and at the same time 
they take in carbonic acid gas from the air and 
combine it with the soil foods and this digested 
mass then passes out of the leaves under the bark 
building up the little cells in the plant and fruit 
which constitutes the growth. 
This process in digestion can only take place 
in sun light, so a plant cannot grow and produce 
fruit unless it has plenty of light and air. They 
soon turn pale and die in the dark. 
For this reason we must set all plants far 
enough apart for the sunshine to reach every 
leaf and fruit bud. The leaves of a strawberry 
plant naturally droop over so that the sun shines 
on the crown and therefore they must not be al- 
lowed to mat so thickly as to shut out the light. 
WHY WE PLOW. 
We have shown that plants take their soil foods 
dissolved in water. If all the plant foods in the 
ground were soluble and available at one time, the 
rains would wash them all out and the land would 
soon become barren. It would do very little good 
to apply manure because it would be lost before 
the plants could use it. 
Nature has provided for this by making a chemi- 
cal change in the foods and they become insoluble 
in water, at the same time a resolvent was provid- 
ed to make them available as fast as the plants 
could use them, and this "resolvent" is the 
oxygen of the air. When we plow, hairow and 
roll to crush lumps, it not only opens the ground 
so it will hold more water but the oxygen comes 
in contact with the soil grains just before the plants 
aresetand they can then get plenty of food and 
will grow very fast. 
No matter how vigorous your plants may be they 
will not produce large crops of Iruil unless they 
can have food and moisture and this can only be 
secured by thoroughly manuring and preparing 
the soil. 
Seatord 
The Margarett 
WHY WE SUBSOIL. 
Subsoiling is to follow the common plow with 
one which only breaks up and pulverizes the lower 
strata and leaves it at the bottom of the furrow. 
This sub.soil must not be brought to the surface 
as it contains but little plant food. By breaking 
it up we actually create a reservoir of water under 
the plants which draws up by capillary action to 
tide them over the drouthy season. The soil grains 
being separated they will surround themselves 
with a thicker film of water. As an illustration, 
put some small gravel stones on a w^et cloth and 
see the water pass up and quickly cover them and 
remain .so as long as the cloth is wet. 
Sometimes when the ground has been plowed 
the same depth for a number of years the bottom 
of the furrows become glazed an<l baked so hard 
the water cannot settle through it or come up 
from below by capillary action and when heavy 
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