The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-02
THE EARN AND THE GARDEN.
MATTERS OF INTEREST TO HOUSE
WIFE AND AGRICULTURIST.

Seeus-heeplnH POtatOes InTOuBh
the Summer.
A reasonably dry May has always
been considered a very desirable thing
anywhere in the cotton region. The
real fight with grass is made in that
month and it was a bad thing for a
farmer for the June rains to come be-
fore the fields of corn and cotton were
fully cleaned of the grass-the Grow
foot" and the Grab" that springs to
meet the warming rays of the early
May sun. Cotton planted any time in
April should be thinned to a stand and
in clean condition on the first day of
June and March planted corn should
be in such condition that nothing more
than a sweeping or narrowing should
be necessary to make the crop.
Such weather that suits the corn
and cotton grower, however, is not
quite satisfactory to the gardener or
trucker in the same territory. For the
trucker the present May has been en-
tirely too dry. In fact, it has been so
dry as to cause a considerable loss
%AS@N
the influence of a dry soil and strong
westerly winds making it drier every
day, the bad effects could easily be
seen IN the stunted crops of potatoes,
beans, beets, tomatoes, melons and 9TH
er crops OF lesser importance-the ag-
sregate of which is worth a great deal
to the people of the South More so
Just now than ever before with the
nigh prices prevailing with all these
tCod products that we do not raise, and
nave to buy the vegetable crops of the
Southern householder and farmer are
worth q great deal to the country. and
at no time in our history has our gar
den products been of more importance
than they are this season Thousands
OF people will live but poorly if denied
me benefits afforded by good garden
Here in the South any family having
the use of as much as half an
acre of good soil should find
almost a good living from 1t at least
SIX months in the year. Our people
are coming to realize this more and
more every year, and more attention
is being given to gardens
Nowadays so much reliance is put
upon commercial fertilizers even in the
garden it is rarely the case that we
ma any garden soil as rich in humus
as 1t was when there was a more gen
eral reliance upon stable manure, as
was the case in our fathers time
Then the expression IAN old garden
spot slgnifed a spot very rich in
numus or deeaying vegetable ma tier
IL was almost to rich tor certain
crops-those grown tor their seeds and
such as are known as vine plants
Nearly every year in those times the
garden received liberal dressings OF
rich sta BILE manure that added no in
considerable OF Vegeta BILE matter or
Aumus to the soil. The soil actually
grew richer in humus and consequently
in nitrogen every year, and when there
is plenty of this in the soil there is
rarely any lack of potash and phos-
phate acid In any case it was not
dlflcult to supply these latter elements
of food
With the yearly dependence upon
commercial fertilizers. used chiefly be-
cause they were so handy and so cas-
lily applied, these rich garden spots
gradually lost their supply of humus
until they became almost as barren as
the fields devoted to corn and cotton,
and dry weather every succeeding year
showed greater capacity for i'll
Soil without humus in it cannot hold
that reserve of moisture within ito
be given up gradually to the crops
that humus- supplied soil can hold.
Under The hot sun of May, June and
July dry weather speedily begins to
SHOW its bad effects. dry spell soon
becomes a drought and two weeks con-
tinued dryness nowadays has more Sc
rtous consequences than a months dry
weather had twenty-five years ago.
The moisture soon dries out from a
soil that has little or no humus in it.
and we have been so regardless of re-
storing the wasted humus to our gar
IL &c Ill
we have very little first-class arabic
soil to cultivate.
We do not cultivate our crops enough
and especially at that important stage
of the plant when it first bSgins to
bloom and to perfect it's fruit. If it is
not supplied with moisture sufficient to
keep it steadily growing and setting
fruit 1t will become checked or dor
mant. and if that dormant condition is
kept up even for a week or two it will
never recover its normal vitality even
when saturating rains fail upon it.
The stirring of the soil should be
almost incesant at that pc
riod of the life of, the plant whatever
1t may be. In the absence of irriga-
ton or of a mulch the only offset for
! dry weather is constant shallow stir
ring of the soil to the depth of two or
three inches. This amounts to making
a mulch of that much of the surface
| soil BY keeping this two or three
inches of soil frequently stirred dur
| ing a period of drought a certain
| amount of moisture is furnished the
roots of the plants in the dryest wealth
er through the influence of capillary
| attraction that can bring a flow Of
moisture from very low depths-a flow
| though altogether invisible to the eve
| or apparent perhaps to the touch. still
sufficient to keep growing plant re-
freshed and growing until more rain
falls. This stirring of the soil with
sweep or harrow when the soil appears
already as dry as ashes promotes a
deposit of dew" upon the plants that
are stirred around that will not he
found on those where the soil has rot
been stirred. This dew may have at
times all the good effects of an inch
of rain. 1t is the moisture brought
up from the soil that is condensed upon
the plant that we recognize as dew. 8"
1t does not come from the atmosphere.
except indirectly. There are many
| farmers and truckers. too, who enter
| tain the belief that if there is no grass
to kill and the soil has been stirred
once since the last rain, even if that
| rain had occurred three weeks before
that there was nothing to be gained
! by Cultivating before another rain fell
| This is one of the most serious mis-
! takes that a farmer or a trucker can
make. In our hot climate any time af-
| ter the first of May the soil begins to
get unfavorably dry in ten days after
a saturating rain and allowing that the
crust is broken within four or five days
after such a rain the stirring of the
! soil ShOuld he rPppated within tbraa or