THE HANDLING OF THE LAND
Almost any land contains enough food for the growing of good crops, but
the food elements may be chemically unavailable, or there may be
insufficient water to dissolve them. It is too long a story to explain
at this place,—the philosophy of tillage and of enriching the land,—and
the reader who desires to make excursions into this delightful subject
should consult King on “The Soil,” Roberts on “The Fertility of the
Land,” and recent writings of many kinds. The reader must accept my
word for it that tilling the land renders it productive.
I must call my reader’s attention to the fact that this book is on the
making of gardens,—on the planning and the doing of the work from the
year’s end to end,—not on the appreciation of a completed garden. I
want the reader to know that a garden is not worth having unless he
makes it with his own hands or helps to make it. He must work himself
into it. He must know the pleasure of preparing the land, of contending
with bugs and all other difficulties, for it is only thereby that he
comes into appreciation of the real value of a garden.
I am saying this to prepare the reader for the work that I lay out in
this chapter. I want him to know the real joy that there is in the
simple processes of breaking the earth and fitting it for the seed. The
more pains he takes with these processes, naturally the keener will be
his enjoyment of them. No one can have any other satisfaction than that
of mere manual exercise if he does not know the reasons for what he
does with his soil. I am sure that my keenest delight in a garden comes
in the one month of the opening season and the other month of the
closing season. These are the months when I work hardest and when I am
nearest the soil. To feel the thrust of the spade, to smell the sweet
earth, to prepare for the young plants and then to prepare for the
closing year, to handle the tools with discrimination, to guard against
frost, to be close with the rain and wind, to see the young things
start into life and then to see them go down into winter,—these are
some of the best of the joys of gardening. In this spirit we should
take up the work of handling the land.
_The draining of the land_.
[Illustration: Fig 79. Ditching tools.] The first step in the
preparation of land, after it has been thoroughly cleared and subdued
of forest or previous vegetation, is to attend to the drainage. All
land that is springy, low, and “sour,” or that holds the water in
puddles for a day or two following heavy rains, should be thoroughly
underdrained. Draining also improves the physical condition of the soil
even when the land does not need the removal of superfluous water. In
hard lands, it lowers the water-table, or tends to loosen and aerate
the soil to a greater depth, and thereby enables it to hold more water
without injury to plants. Drainage is particularly useful in dry but
hard garden lands, because these lands are often in sod or permanently
planted, and the soil cannot be broken up by deep tillage. Tile
drainage is permanent subsoiling.
Hard-baked cylindrical tiles make the best and most permanent drains.
The ditches usually should not be less than two and one-half feet deep,
and three or three and one-half feet is often better. In most garden
areas, drains may be laid with profit as often as every thirty feet.
Give all drains a good and continuous fall. For single drains and for
laterals not over four hundred or five hundred feet long, a two and
one-half inch tile is sufficient, unless much water must be carried
from swales or springs. In stony countries, flat stones may be used in
place of tiles, and persons who are skillful in laying them make drains
as good and permanent as those constructed of tiles. The tiles or
stones are covered with sods, straw, or paper, and the earth is then
filled in. This temporary cover keeps the loose dirt out of the tiles,
and by the time it is rotted the earth has settled into place.
In small places, ditching must ordinarily be done wholly with hand
tools. A common spade and pick are the implements usually employed,
although a spade with a long handle and narrow blade, as shown in Fig.
79, is very useful for excavating the bottom of the ditch.
[Illustration: Fig. 80. How to use a spade.]
In most cases, much time and muscle are wasted in the use of the pick.
If the digging is properly done, a spade can be used to cut the soil,
even in fairly hard clay land, with no great difficulty. The essential
point in the easy use of the spade is to manage so that one edge of the
spade always cuts a free or exposed surface. The illustration (Fig. 80)
will explain the method. When the operator endeavors to cut the soil in
the method shown at A, he is obliged to break both edges at every
thrust of the tool; but when he cuts the slice diagonally, first
throwing his spade to the right and then to the left, as shown at B, he
cuts only one side and is able to make progress without the expenditure
of useless effort. These remarks will apply to any spading of the land.
In large areas, horses may be used to facilitate the work of ditching.
There are ditching plows and machines, which, however, need not be
discussed here; but three or four furrows may be thrown out in either
direction with a strong plow, and a subsoil plow be run behind to break
up the hard-pan, and this may reduce the labor of digging as much as
one-half. When the excavating is completed, the bottom of the ditch is
evened up by means of a line or level, and the bed for the tiles is
prepared by the use of a goose-neck scoop, shown in Fig. 79. It is very
important that the outlets of drains be kept free of weeds and litter.
If the outlet is built up with mason work, to hold the end of the tile
intact, very much will be added to the permanency of the drain.
VII. Bedding with palms. If a bricked-up pit is made about the porch,
pot palms may be plunged in it in spring and pot conifers in winter;
and fall bulbs in tin cans (so that the receptacles will not split with
frost) may be plunged among the evergreens. VII. Bedding with palms. If
a bricked-up pit is made about the porch, pot palms may be plunged in
it in spring and pot conifers in winter; and fall bulbs in tin cans (so
that the receptacles will not split with frost) may be plunged among
the evergreens.
_Trenching and subsoiling_.
Although underdraining is the most important means of increasing the
depth of the soil, it is not always practicable to lay drains through
garden lands. In such cases, recourse is had to very deep preparation
of the land, either every year or every two or three years.
[Illustration: 81. Trenching with a spade.]
In small garden areas, this deep preparation will ordinarily be done by
trenching with a spade. This operation of trenching consists in
breaking up the earth two spades deep. Figure 81 explains the
operation. The section at the left shows a single spading, the earth
being thrown over to the right, leaving the subsoil exposed the whole
width of the bed. The section at the right shows a similar operation,
so far as the surface spading is concerned, but the subsoil has also
been cut as fast as it has been exposed. This under soil is not thrown
out on the surface, and usually it is not inverted; but a spadeful is
lifted and then allowed to drop so that it is thoroughly broken and
pulverized in the manipulation.
In all lands that have a hard and high subsoil, it is usually essential
to practice trenching if the best results are to be secured; this is
especially true when deep-rooted plants, as beets, parsnips, and other
root-crops, are to be grown; it prepares the soil to hold moisture; and
it allows the water of heavy rainfall to pass to greater depths rather
than to be held as puddles and in mud on the surface.
[Illustration: Fig. 82. Home-made subsoil plow.] [Illustration: Fig.
83. Forms of subsoil plows.] In places that can be entered with a team,
deep and heavy plowing to the depth of seven to ten inches may be
desirable on hard lands, especially if such lands cannot be plowed very
often; and the depth of the pulverization is often extended by means of
the subsoil plow. This subsoil plow does not turn a furrow, but a
second team draws the implement behind the ordinary plow, and the
bottom of the furrow is loosened and broken. Figure 82 shows a
home-made subsoil plow, and Fig. 83 two types of commercial tools. It
must be remembered that it is the hardest lands that need subsoiling
and that, therefore, the subsoil plow should be exceedingly strong.
_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.
As often as the surface becomes compact, the mulch should be renewed or
repaired by the use of the rake or cultivator or harrow. Persons are
deceived by supposing that so long as the surface remains moist, the
land is in the best possible condition; a moist surface may mean that
water is rapidly passing off into the atmosphere. A dry surface may
mean that less evaporation is taking place, and there may be moister
earth beneath it; and moisture is needed below the surface rather than
on top. A finely raked bed is dry on top; but the footprints of the cat
remain moist, for the animal packed the soil wherever it stepped and a
capillary connection was established with the water reservoir beneath.
Gardeners advise firming the earth over newly planted seeds to hasten
germination. This is essential in dry times; but what we gain in
hastening germination we lose in the more rapid evaporation of
moisture. The lesson is that we should loosen the soil as soon as the
seeds have germinated, to reduce evaporation to the minimum. Large
seeds, as beans and peas, may be planted deep and have the earth firmed
about them, and then the rake may be applied to the surface to stop the
rise of moisture before it reaches the air.
Two illustrations, adapted from Roberts’s “Fertility,” show good and
poor preparation of the land. Figure 93 is a section of land twelve
inches deep. The under soil has been finely broken and pulverized and
then compacted. It is mellow but firm, and is an excellent water
reservoir. Three inches of the surface is a mulch of loose and dry
earth. Figure 94 shows an earth-mulch, but it is too shallow; and the
under soil is so open and cloddy that the water runs through it.
[Illustration: Fig. 93. To illustrate good preparation of ground.]
[Illustration: 94. To illustrate poor preparation of ground.]
When the land is once properly prepared, the soil-mulch is maintained
by surface-working tools. In field practice, these tools are harrows
and horse cultivators of various kinds; in home garden practice they
are wheel-hoes, rakes, and many patterns of hand hoes and scarifiers,
with finger-weeders and other small implements for work directly among
the plants.
A garden soil is not in good condition when it is hard and crusted on
top. The crust may be the cause of wasting water, it keeps out the air,
and in general it is an uncongenial physical condition; but its
evaporation of water is probably its chief defect. Instead of pouring
water on the land, therefore, we first attempt to keep the moisture in
the land. If, however, the soil becomes so dry in spite of you that the
plants do not thrive, then water the bed. Do not _sprinkle_ it, but
_water_ it. Wet it clear through at evening. Then in the morning, when
the earth begins to dry, loosen the surface again to keep the water
from getting away. Sprinkling the plants every day or two is one of the
surest ways of spoiling them. We may water the ground with a
garden-rake.
_Hand tools for weeding and subsequent tillage and other hand work._
Any of the cultivators and wheel-hoes are as useful for the subsequent
tilling of the crop as for the initial preparation of the land, but
there are other tools also that greatly facilitate the keeping of the
plantation in order. Yet wholly aside from the value of a tool as an
implement of tillage and as a weapon for the pursuit of weeds, is its
merit merely as a shapely and interesting instrument. A man will take
infinite pains to choose a gun or a fishing-rod to his liking, and a
woman gives her best attention to the selecting of an umbrella; but a
hoe is only a hoe and a rake only a rake. If one puts his personal
choice into the securing of plants for a garden, so should he
discriminate in the choice of hand tools, to secure those that are
light, trim, well made, and precisely adapted to the work to be
accomplished. A case of neat garden tools ought to be a great joy to a
joyful gardener. So I am willing to enlarge on the subject of hoes and
their kind.
The hoe.
[Illustration: 95. Useful forms of hoe-blades.]
The common rectangular-bladed hoe is so thoroughly established in the
popular mind that it is very difficult to introduce new patterns, even
though they may be intrinsically superior. As a general-purpose tool,
it is no doubt true that a common hoe is better than any of its
modifications, but there are various patterns of hoe-blades that are
greatly superior for special uses, and which ought to appeal to any
quiet soul who loves a garden.
The great width of the common blade does not admit of its being used in
very narrow rows or very close to delicate plants, and it does not
allow of the deep stirring of the soil in narrow spaces. It is also
difficult to enter hard ground with such a broad face. Various pointed
blades have been introduced from time to time, and most of them have
merit. Some persons prefer two points to the hoe, as shown in Marvin’s
blades, in Fig. 95. These interesting shapes represent the suggestions
of gardeners who will not be bound by what the market affords, but who
have blades cut and fitted for their own satisfaction.
[Illustration: Fig. 96. A stack of gardening weapons, comprising some
of Tarryer’s weeding spuds and thimbles.]
Persons who followed the entertaining writings of one who called
himself Mr. A.B. Tarryer, in “American Garden,” a few years back, will
recall the great variety of implements that he advised for the purpose
of extirpating his hereditary foes, the weeds. A variety of these
blades and tools is shown in Figs. 96 and 97. I shall let Mr. Tarryer
tell his story at some length in order to lead my reader painlessly
into a new field of gardening pleasures.
Mr. Tarryer contends that the wheel-hoe is much too clumsy an affair to
allow of the pursuit of an individual weed. While the operator is busy
adjusting his machine and manipulating it about the corners of the
garden, the quack-grass has escaped over the fence or has gone to seed
at the other end of the plantation. He devised an expeditious tool for
each little work to be performed on the garden,—for hard ground and
soft, for old weeds and young (one of his implements was denominated
“infant-damnation”).
[Illustration: Fig. 97. Some of the details of the Tarryer tools.]
“Scores of times during the season,” Mr. Tarryer writes, “the ten or
fifteen minutes one has to enjoy in the flower, fruit, and vegetable
garden—and that would suffice for the needful weeding with the hoes we
are celebrating—would be lost in harnessing horses or adjusting and
oiling squeaky wheel-hoes, even if everybody had them. The ‘American
Garden’ is not big enough, nor my patience long enough, to give more
than an inkling of the unspeakable merits of these weapons of society
and civilization. When Mrs. Tarryer was showing twelve or fifteen acres
of garden with never a weed to be seen, she valued her dozen or more of
these light implements at five or ten dollars daily; whether they were
in actual use or adorning the front hall, like a hunter’s or angler’s
furniture, made no difference. But where are these millennial tools
made and sold? Nowhere. They are as unknown as the Bible was in the
dark ages, and we must give a few hints towards manufacturing them.
“First, about the handles. The ordinary dealer or workman may say these
knobs can be formed on any handles by winding them with leather; but
just fancy a young maiden setting up her hoe meditatively and resting
her hands and chin upon an old leather knob to reflect upon something
that has been said to her in the garden, and we shall perceive that a
knob by some other name would smell far sweeter. Moreover, trees grow
large enough at the butt to furnish all the knobs we want—even for
broom-sticks—though sawyers, turners, dealers, and the public seem not
to be aware of it; yet it must be confessed we are so far gone in
depravity that there will be trouble in getting those handles....
“In a broadcast prayer of this public nature, absolute specifications
would not be polite. Black walnut and butternut are fragrant as well as
beautiful timber. Cherry is stiff, heavy, durable, and, like maple,
takes a slippery polish. For fine, light handles, that the palm will
stick to, butt cuts of poplar or cottonwood cannot be excelled, yet
straight-grained ash will bear more careless usage.
“The handles of Mrs. Tarryer’s hoes are never perfectly straight. All
the bayonet class bend downward in use half an inch or more; all the
thrust-hoe handles bend up in a regular curve (like a fiddle-bow turned
over) two or three inches. Unless they are hung right, these hoes are
very awkward things. When perfectly fit for one, they may not fit
another; that is, a tall, keen-sighted person cannot use the hoe that
is just fit for a very short one.... Curves in the handles throw
centers of gravity where they belong. Good timber generally warps in a
handle about right, only implement makers and babes in weeding may not
know when it is made fast right side up in the hoe.
“There are plenty of thrust-hoes in market, such as they are. Some have
malleable iron sockets and bows—heavier to the buyer and cheaper to the
dealer—instead of wrought-iron and steel, such as is required for true
worth.”
Scarifiers.
[Illustration: 98. A scarifier.]
[Illustration: 99. Home-made scarifier.]
[Illustration: 100. Home-made scarifier or scraper.]
[Illustration: 101. The common scarifier.]
For many purposes, tools that scrape or scarify the surface are
preferable to hoes that dig up the ground. Weeds may be kept down by
cutting them off, as in walks and often in flower-beds, rather than by
rooting them out. Figure 98 shows such a tool, and a home-made
implement answering the same purpose is illustrated in Fig. 99. This
latter tool is easily made from strong band-iron. Another type is
suggested in Fig. 100, representing a slicing-hoe made by fastening a
sheet of good metal to the tines of a broken fork. The kind chiefly in
the market is shown in Fig. 101.
Hand-weeders.
[Illustration: 102. Good hand-weeders.]
[Illustration: 103. A hand-weeder.]
[Illustration: 104. A finger-weeder.]
[Illustration: 105. A small hand-weeder.]
For small beds of flowers or vegetables, hand-weeders of various
patterns are essential to easy and efficient work. One of the best
patterns, with long and short handles, is shown in Fig. 102. Another
style, that may be made at home of hoop-iron, is drawn in Fig. 103. A
finger-weeder is illustrated in Fig. 104. In Fig. 105 a common form is
shown. Many patterns of hand-weeders are in the market, and other forms
will suggest themselves to the operator.
Trowels and their kind.
Small hand-tools for digging, as trowels, dibbers, and spuds, may be
had of dealers. In buying a trowel it is economy to pay an extra price
and secure a steel blade with a strong shank that runs through the
entire length of the handle. One of these tools will last several years
and may be used in hard ground, but the cheap trowels are generally
hardly worth the buying. A solid wrought-iron trowel all in one piece
is also manufactured, and is the most durable pattern. A steel trowel
may be secured to a long handle; or the blade of a broken trowel may be
utilized in the same way (Fig. 106). A very good trowel may also be
made from a discarded blade of a mowing machine (Fig. 107), and it
answers the purpose of a hand-weeder.
[Illustration: Fig. 106. Long-handled trowel.]
[Illustration: Fig. 107. Improvised trowel.]
[Illustration: Fig. 108. Weed-spud.]
[Illustration: Fig. 109. A good weed-spud.]
[Illustration: Fig. 110. Weed-cutter.]
[Illustration: Fig. 111. A weed-spud that lifts the weed.]
Weed-spuds are shown in Figs. 108 to 111. The first is particularly
serviceable in cutting docks and other strong weeds from lawns and
pastures. It is provided with a brace to allow it to be thrust into the
ground with the foot. It is seldom necessary to dig out perennial weeds
to the tips of their deep roots, if the crown is severed a short
distance below the surface.
Rollers.
[Illustration: Fig. 112. Hand-roller.] [Illustration: Fig. 113. Roller
and marker.]
It is often essential that the land be compacted after it has been
spaded or hoed, and some kind of hand-roller is then useful. Very
efficient iron rollers are in the market, but a good one can be made
from a hard chestnut or oak log, as shown in Fig. 112. (It should be
remembered that when the surface is hard and compact, water escapes
from it rapidly, and plants may suffer for moisture on arrival of warm
weather.) The roller is useful in two ways—to compact the
under-surface, in which case the surface should be again loosened as
soon as the rolling is done; and to firm the earth about seeds (page
98) or the roots of newly set plants.
Markers.
[Illustration: Fig. 114. Roller and marker.]
[Illustration: Fig. 115. Marking-stick.]
A marker may often be combined with the roller to good advantage, as in
Fig. 113. Ropes are secured about the cylinder at proper intervals, and
these mark the rows. Knots may be placed in the ropes to indicate the
places where plants are to be set or seeds dropped. An extension of the
same idea is seen in Fig. 114, which shows iron or wooden pegs that
make holes in which very small plants may be set. An L-shaped rod
projects at one side to mark the place of the next row.
[Illustration: Fig. 116. Tool for spacing plants.]
[Illustration: Fig. 117. Barrow rigged with a marker.]
[Illustration: Fig. 118. Hand sled-marker.]
In most cases the best and most expeditious method of marking out the
garden is by the use of the garden line, which is secured to a reel
(Fig. 96), but various other devices are often useful. For very small
beds, drills or furrows may be made by a simple marking-stick (Fig.
115). A handy marker is shown in Fig. 116. A marker can be rigged to a
wheel-barrow, as in Fig. 117. A rod is secured underneath the front
truss, and from its end an adjustable trailer, B, is hung. The wheel of
the barrow marks the row, and the trailer indicates the place of the
next row, thereby keeping the rows parallel. A hand sled-marker is
shown in Fig. 118, and a similar device may be secured to the frame of
a sulky cultivator (Fig. 119) or other wheel tool. A good adjustable
sled-marker is outlined in Fig. 120.
[Illustration: Fig. 119. Trailing sled-marker.]
[Illustration: Fig. 120. Adjustable sled-marker.]
_Enriching the land_.
Two problems are involved in the fertilizing of the land: the direct
addition of plant-food, and the improvement of the physical structure
of the soil. The latter office is often the more important.
Lands that, on the one hand, are very hard and solid, with a tendency
to bake, and, on the other, that are loose and leachy, are very greatly
benefited by the addition of organic matter. When this organic
matter—as animal and plant remains—decays and becomes thoroughly
incorporated with the soil, it forms what is called humus. The addition
of this humus makes the land mellow, friable, retentive of moisture,
and promotes the general chemical activities of the soil. It also puts
the soil in the best physical condition for the comfort and well-being
of the plants. Very many of the lands that are said to be exhausted of
plant-food still contain enough potash, phosphoric acid, and lime, and
other fertilizing elements, to produce good crops; but they have been
greatly injured in their physical condition by long-continued cropping,
injudicious tillage, and the withholding of vegetable matter. A part of
the marked results secured from the plowing under of clover is due to
the incorporation of vegetable matter, wholly aside from the addition
of fertilizing material; and this is emphatically true of clover
because its deep-growing roots penetrate and break up the subsoil.
Muck and leafmold are often very useful in ameliorating either very
hard or very loose lands. Excellent humous material may be constantly
at hand if the leaves, garden refuse, and some of the manure are piled
and composted (p. 114). If the pile is turned several times a year, the
material becomes fine and uniform in texture.
The various questions associated with the fertilizing of the land are
too large to be considered in detail here. Persons who desire to
familiarize themselves with the subject should consult recent books. It
may be said, however, that, as a rule, most lands contain all the
elements of plant-food in sufficient quantities except potash,
phosphoric acid, and nitrogen. In many cases, lime is very beneficial
to land, usually because it corrects acidity and has a mechanical
effect in pulverizing and flocculating clay and in cementing sands.
The chief sources of commercial potash are muriate of potash, sulfate
of potash, and wood ashes. For general purposes, the muriate of potash
is now recommended, because it is comparatively cheap and the
composition is uniform. A normal application of muriate of potash is
200 to 300 pounds to the acre; but on some lands, where the greatest
results are demanded, sometimes as much as twice this application may
be made.
Phosphoric acid is got in dissolved South Carolina and Florida rock and
in various bone preparations. These materials are applied at the rate
of 200 to 400 pounds to the acre.
Commercial nitrogen is secured chiefly in the form of animal refuse, as
blood and tankage, and in nitrate of soda. It is more likely to be lost
by leaching through the land than the mineral substances are,
especially if the land lacks humus. Nitrate of soda is very soluble,
and should be applied in small quantities at intervals. Nitrogen, being
the element which is mostly conducive to vegetative growth, tends to
delay the season of maturity if applied heavily or late in the season.
From 100 to 300 pounds of nitrate of soda may be applied to the acre,
but it is ordinarily better to make two or three applications at
intervals of three to six weeks. Fertilizing materials may be applied
either in fall or spring; but in the case of nitrate of soda it is
usually better not to apply in the fall unless the land has plenty of
humus to prevent leaching, or on plants that start very early in the
spring.
Fertilizing material is sown broadcast, or it may be scattered lightly
in furrows underneath the seeds, and then covered with earth. If sown
broadcast, it may be applied either after the seeds are sown or before.
It is usually better to apply it before, for although the rains carry
it down, nevertheless the upward movement of water during the dry
weather of the summer tends to bring it back to the surface. It is
important that large lumps of fertilizer, especially muriate of potash
and nitrate of soda, do not fall near the crowns of the plants;
otherwise the plants may be seriously injured. It is a general
principle, also, that it is best to use more sparingly of fertilizers
than of tillage. The tendency is to make fertilizers do penance for the
sins of neglect, but the results do not often meet one’s expectations.
If one has only a small garden or a home yard, it ordinarily will not
pay him to buy the chemicals separately, as suggested above, but he may
purchase a complete fertilizer that is sold under a trademark or brand,
and has a guaranteed analysis. If one is raising plants chiefly for
their foliage, as rhubarb and ornamental bushes, he should choose a
fertilizer comparatively rich in nitrogen; but if he desires chiefly
fruit and flowers, the mineral elements, as potash and phosphoric acid,
should usually be high. If one uses the chemicals, it is not necessary
that they be mixed before application; in fact, it is usually better
not to mix them, because some plants and some soils need more of one
element than of another. Just what materials, and how much, different
soils and plants require must be determined by the grower himself by
observation and experiment; and it is one of the satisfactions of
gardening to arrive at discrimination in such matters.
Muriate of potash costs $40 and upwards per ton, sulfate about $48,
dissolved boneblack about $24, ground bone about $30, kainit about $13,
and nitrate of soda about 2-1/4 cents per pound. These prices vary, of
course, with the composition or mechanical condition of materials, and
with the state of the market. The average composition of unleached wood
ashes in the market is about as follows: Potash, 5.2 per cent;
phosphoric acid, 1.70 per cent; lime, 34 per cent; magnesia, 3.40 per
cent. The average composition of kainit is 13.54 per cent potash, 1.15
per cent lime.
The fact that the soil itself is the greatest storehouse of plant-food
is shown by the following average of thirty-five analyses of the total
content of the first eight inches of surface soils, per acre: 3521
pounds of nitrogen, 4400 pounds of phosphoric acid, 19,836 pounds of
potash. Much of this is unavailable, but good tillage, green-manuring,
and proper management tend to unlock it and at the same time to save it
from waste.
[Illustration: Fig 121. A good cart for collecting leaves and other
materials.]
Every careful gardener will take satisfaction in saving leaves and
trimmings and stable refuse and making compost of it to supplement the
native supplies in the soil. Some out-of-the-way corner will be found
for a permanent pile, with room for piling it over from time to time.
The pile will be screened by his garden planting. (Figure 121 suggests
a useful cart for collecting such materials.) He will also save the
power of his land by changing his crops to other parts of the garden,
year by year, not growing his China asters or his snap-dragons or his
potatoes or strawberries continuously on the same area; and thus, also,
will his garden have a new face every year.
Lest the reader may get the idea that there is no limit to be placed on
the enriching of the soil, I will caution him at the end of my
discussion that he may easily make the place so rich that some plants
will overgrow and will not come into flowering or fruiting before
frost, and flowers may lack brilliancy. On very rich land, scarlet sage
will grow to great size but will not bloom in the northern season;
sweet peas will run to vine; gaillardias and some other plants will
break down; tomatoes and melons and peppers may be so late that the
fruit will not ripen. Only experience and good judgment will safeguard
the gardener as to how far he should or should not go.