THE HANDLING OF THE LAND - Continued
Preparation of the surface.
Every pains should be taken to prevent the surface of the land from
becoming crusty or baked, for the hard surface establishes a capillary
connection with the moist soil beneath, and is a means of passing off
the water into the atmosphere. Loose and mellow soil also has more free
plant-food, and provides the most congenial conditions for the growth of
plants. The tools that one may use in preparing the surface soil are now
so many and so well adapted to the work that the gardener should find
special satisfaction in handling them.
If the soil is a stiff clay, it is often advisable to plow it or dig it
in the fall, allowing it to lie rough and loose all winter, so that the
weathering may pulverize and slake it. If the clay is very tenacious,
it may be necessary to throw leafmold or litter over the surface before
the spading is done, to prevent the soil from running together or
cementing before spring. With mellow and loamy lands, however, it is
ordinarily best to leave the preparation of the surface until spring.
[Illustration: Fig. 84. Improvising a spading-fork.]
In the preparation of the surface, the ordinary hand tools, or spades
and shovels, may be used. If, however, the soil is mellow, a fork is a
better tool than a spade, from the fact that it does not slice the soil,
but tends to break it up into smaller and more irregular masses. The
ordinary spading-fork, with strong flat tines, is a most serviceable
tool; a spading-fork for soft ground may be made from an old manure fork
by cutting down the tines, as shown in Fig. 84.
It is important that the soil should not be sticky when it is prepared,
as it is likely to become hard and baked and the physical condition be
greatly injured. However, land that is too wet for the reception of
seeds may still be thrown up loose with a spade or fork and allowed to
dry, and after two or three days the surface preparation may be
completed with the hoe and the rake. In ordinary soils the hoe is the
tool to follow the spading-fork or the spade, but for the final
preparation of the surface a steel garden-rake is the ideal implement.
[Illustration: Fig. 85. Excellent types of surface plows.]
In areas, large enough to admit horse tools, the land can be fitted more
economically by means of the various types of plows, harrows, and
cultivators that are to be had of any dealer in agricultural implements.
Figure 85 shows various types of model surface plows. The one shown at
the upper left-hand is considered by Roberts, in his "Fertility of the
Land," to be the ideal general-purpose plow, as respects shape and
method of construction.
The type of machine to be used must be determined wholly by the
character of the land and the purposes for which it is to be fitted.
Lands that are hard and cloddy may be reduced by the use of the disk or
Acme harrows, shown in Fig. 86; but those that are friable and mellow
may not need such heavy and vigorous tools. On these mellower lands, the
spring-tooth harrow, types of which are shown in Fig. 87, may follow the
plow. On very hard lands, these spring-tooth harrows may follow the disk
and Acme types. The final preparation of the land is accomplished by
light implements of the pattern shown in Fig. 88. These spike-tooth
smoothing-harrows do for the field what the hand-rake does for the
garden-bed.
[Illustration: Fig. 86. Disk and Acme harrows, for the first working of
hard or cloddy land.]
[Illustration: Fig. 87. Spring-tooth harrows.]
If it is desired to put a very fine finish on the surface of the ground
by means of horse tools, implements like the Breed or Wiard weeder may
be used. These are constructed on the principle of a spring-tooth horse
hay-rake, and are most excellent, not only for fitting loose land for
ordinary seeding, but also for subsequent tillage.
[Illustration: Fig. 88. Spike-tooth harrow.]
[Illustration: Fig. 89. Spike-tooth and spring-tooth cultivators.]
In areas that cannot be entered with a team, various one-horse
implements may do the work that is accomplished by heavier tools in the
field. The spring-tooth cultivator, shown at the right in Fig. 89, may
do the kind of work that the spring-tooth harrows are expected to do on
larger areas; and various adjustable spike-tooth cultivators, two of
which are shown in Fig. 89, are useful for putting a finish on the land.
These tools are also available for the tilling of the surface when crops
are growing. The spring-tooth cultivator is a most useful tool for
cultivating raspberries and blackberries, and other strong-rooted crops.
[Illustration: Fig. 90. Good type of wheel-hoe.]
[Illustration: Fig. 91. A single-blade wheel-hoe.]
[Illustration: Fig. 92. Double wheel-hoe, useful in straddling the row.]
For still smaller areas, in which horses cannot be used and which are
still too large for tilling wholly by means of hoes and rakes, various
types of wheel-hoes may be used. These implements are now made in great
variety of patterns, to suit any taste and almost any kind of tillage.
For the best results, it is essential that the wheel should be large and
with a broad tire, that it may override obstacles. Figure 90 shows an
excellent type of wheel-hoe with five blades, and Fig. 91 shows one with
a single blade and that may be used in very narrow rows. Two-wheeled
hoes (Fig. 92) are often used, particularly when it is necessary to have
the implement very steady, and the wheels may straddle the rows of low
plants. Many of these wheel-hoes are provided with various shapes of
blades, so that the implement may be adjusted to many kinds of work.
Nearly all the weeding of beds of onions and like plants can be done by
means of these wheel-hoes, if the ground is well prepared in the
beginning; but it must be remembered that they are of comparatively
small use on very hard and cloddy and stony lands.
The saving of moisture.
The garden must have a liberal supply of moisture. The first effort
toward securing this supply should be the saving of the rainfall water.
Proper preparation and tillage put the land in such condition that it
holds the water of rainfall. Land that is very hard and compact may shed
the rainfall, particularly if it is sloping and if the surface is bare
of vegetation. If the hard-pan is near the surface, the land cannot hold
much water, and any ordinary rainfall may fill it so full that it
overflows, or puddles stand on the surface. On land in good tilth, the
water of rainfall sinks away, and is not visible as free water.
As soon as the moisture begins to pass from the superincumbent
atmosphere, evaporation begins from the surface of the land. Any body
interposed between the land and the air checks this evaporation; this is
why there is moisture underneath a board. It is impracticable, however,
to floor over the garden with boards, but any covering will have similar
effect, but in different degree. A covering of sawdust or leaves or dry
ashes will prevent the loss of moisture. So will a covering of dry
earth. Now, inasmuch as the land is already covered with earth, it only
remains to loosen up a layer or stratum on top in order to secure
the mulch.
All this is only a roundabout way of saying that frequent shallow
surface tillage conserves moisture. The comparatively dry and loose
mulch breaks up the capillary connection between the surface soil and
the under soil, and while the mulch itself may be useless as a foraging
ground for roots, it more than pays its keep by its preventing of the
loss of moisture; and its own soluble plant-foods are washed down into
the lower soil by the rains.