The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-03-23
HOW TO PROTECT SMALL PLANTS

Hortio 4ltural Society March o., 1900 by D b.
d. Smell GER
BY vote of the society at the Feb
ruary meeting lover his protest) the
writer was appointed to indite an
essay under the above caption. |
shall claim the liberty to use the
plural methods, instead of method.
Judging from the caption 1t would
be fair presumption that only small
plants need protection. But plauts,
If started rightly, soon grow so large
that fear hat before 1 conclude
may be suggesting methods to pro-
tect big plants, possibly even big
trees. The subject is clearly suscept-
ible of division and in order to treat
it intelligently | will first speak of
protection from drouth and later on,
from wind.
The first step necessary to protect
your young plants against drouth,
whether in the garden, the truck
patch, the field, or the orchard, IL to
protect first against wet. This may
may, the fact remains that the
drouth is often the more injurious be-
cause previously the soil was too wet.
Excessive rains, which come unbid-
den, nearly every spring aud poor
drainage rendering the ground soggy
and cold and non porous, leaves it,
when the sun strikes It, with hard
crust, thus Fastening the drying Iro-
cess by undue evaporation. We
might say, capillary attraction.
Counterfeit this source of excessive
escape of moisture by destroying this
hard crust, or rather never let 1t form,
but keep the surface loose, by fire.
quent cultivation aud as 1t gets dryer
work the surface very shallow, if
possible, into dust.
l think the greatest safeguards
against drouth to both small and
large plants, consist in good drain
age, very deep blowing or spading,
deep cultivation until the ground GET
dry, and then very frequent but very
intimated, in a dry season If you
could get the surface worked into
dust a few inches deep your plants
would not suffer greatly from drouth.
L remember more than dozen
years ago, while making business
trip west In the central or drouthy
part of Kansas, q farmer told me he |
would rather fight the dry than the
wet weather. / inquired how he
fought dry weather. His reply was:
by constant cultivation. Said he:
"If can get two or three inches of I
dust on my ground l can raise . crop
with very little rain for 1t is always
moist under the dust, When came
to Kansas and went to farming,
nearly a quarter OF century ago, |
expressed my fear of drouth to an old |
resident. He said: you will suffer
more loss from wet weather. said
to .myeelf, intuitively, you are the
biggest Ananias in the whole out fit, |
but in view of subsequent develop
ments / am constrained to say thai
his assertion was true. Again / |
say start your plants right. DO not
set them ont in the muddy ground,
set them when the ground ia in fair
condition and it pays we'll to prepare
a bucket of thick mud and dip the
roots of the plant therein, plant deep,
cultivate often and well, and success
IL almost sure to be attained.
Methinks / hear some one say this
root dipping business is merely "A
theory. ! can assure you, 1t is en-
tirely practical. When the writer
was in the business, largely in south.
ern Illinois EGYPT as it was called)
we never stopped setting plants on
account of dry weather, but whether
we SCI n dozen or thousand we dip.
ped the roots In thick mud. Young
fruit trees, the same, and If AZ
many AZ twenty-five peach trees in
thousand failed to grow, we COM
planned OF bad luck.
Protection from wind, ia in my
opinion, a much more difficult prof.
lem than the former. / would Fave
you always bear this fact in mind, if
your young plants have been started
right and have made a vigorous and
healthy growth the problem Is al
ready half solved, for they will not
need the same amount Of protection
which small, sickly ones would re-
quire. In small way, and to some
extent. this protection may be OBJ
tanned by sticking = shinRle in the
ground beside the small plant and
may also be beneficial in protecting
the young plant from the direct rays
of the sun. or course this on a large