The Home Vegetable Garden 
II 
CULTIVATION 
If the garden is properly prepared to begin with, cultivation 
during the growing season is a comparatively simple matter, con¬ 
sisting of keeping the surface soil well stirred and preventing 
weed growth. In the small garden, the cultivation will be done 
by hand; hoes, rakes, and hand-wheel hoes being used. The lat¬ 
ter are very serviceable implements and one should be owned by 
every gardener who can aiford it. The farm garden, being on a 
larger scale, should be cultivated for the most part with horse- 
drawn cultivators, those of the seven and twelve-tooth types be¬ 
ing desirable for the purpose. 
Cultivation, as a rule, should be shallow and frequent. A 
depth of two or three inches is about right, and once every ten 
days is none too often to give the ground a good stirring. After 
each irrigation, as soon as the soil is dry enough, the irrigation 
furrows and surface soil should be cultivated, in order to conserve 
the moisture which has just been applied, and to prevent baking 
of the surface of the ground. 
The gardener should continue to cultivate throughout the sea¬ 
son. In early spring, he is usually enthusiastic and gets the gar¬ 
den started in good shape, but, as the summer advances, he loses 
some of his ardor and very often allows it to grow up to weeds. 
Consequently, he fails to reap a large part of the benefit which 
would have come had he persisted in giving it proper attention un¬ 
til the end of the season. 
IRRIGATION 
While the various vegetables require different amounts of 
water, it is thought advisable to treat the matter in a general way 
to avoid useless repetition. Vegetables contain from 85 to 90 per¬ 
cent of water, so it is very necessary that they have plenty of 
moisture. The soil in which the plants are growing should be 
moist at all times, and the plants should never become wilted or 
checked for lack of water. This condition is best maintained by 
thorough but not too frequent irrigation. The soil should be wet 
to a good depth and then not irrigated again until needed. This 
causes the plants to send their roots deeply into the soil, and 
economizes the use of water. Frequent, light irrigations induce a 
shallow root system, so that plants are much more easily affected 
by dry weather. 
The furrow method of irrigation is preferable. It is more 
economical of water than the flooding method and is one factor 
in controlling plant diseases. Where a garden is irrigated with a 
lawn sprinkler, the tendency is always to give too little water. The 
