Evening star., 1932-08-16
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEFELL.

Cultivation is as old as the hills, but
it still remains one of the essentials OF
growing flowers and vegetables we'll.
no home gardener should make any
mistake on that score. He can grow
good crops without cultivation, perhaps.
but he will be able to grow better ones
by proper stirring of the soil at inter-
valS
There are many kinds of cultivation,
of course. We speak of tilling the soil.
of paying attention to other human
beings, of improving the mind, OF de-
veloping the body.
All are forms of cultivation.
Each deserves some study. since the
majority Of people are deficient in one
or another
To till the soil means to stir it up
with the proper sort of instruments, so
that certain gains will be secured to the
growing things, and hence to the gar
dener.
In recent years many devices have
been tried to do away with the necessity
for steady cultivation. especially during
the so-called dog days. when often
enough one desires to do anything at all
except work in the garden.
There has come about disposition,
then, on the part of many amateur gar
deners, to look upon cultivation as Old
fashioned, and somewhat unnecessary:
Perhaps we need a new attitude
iowa i this ancient practice, one which
viii enable us to feel that. beside the
plain physical benefit to soil and plants,
there are other and TO less tanglpie
gains to the gardener himself.
After all. the home dabbler In gar
dening does not work in his yaro SO
much for the results there as for the
gains to himself .,ea,,,oss
This is a sort of divine selflsnneSS
which has in it something honest aliu 'l
wholesome. 1t is net often, in inns
world that one may be both selfish ana
helDful at one and the same time.
Perhaps if we bothered less about the
"crops" and more about the clty gai
dener we might come to see that mostly
his work is a play effort, IN Wnich elle
player is quite as important rs the VI
strumants of the game. IheSe are
shrubs, flowers, vegetables, trees, la"ho'
fertilizers. sprays and sprayers; lawn
mower. garden hose, rake. troWel e'.,
These instruments of the game are
important above all to the player e.,
the gardener, who, through them ana
their use, keeps himself interested In the
GREAT laws of growth which give thlS
interesting game its real charm.
He must find this game interesting,
In the first nlace-interesting to hmSelI,
or he will not play it. Just as garoen,
ing is an occupation. as some one sala
long ago, for which no man IS too hl9h
or too low, SO also is it game OF soil
taire played with the seasons as spec
! tators ..o.,,or.
! but in the last analysis every one gar.
dens alone, as he lives alone. what
! gardeners share with one another are
but the superficial aspects.
The real beauty which lies behind
form and color of flower and branch
ore held in reserve for the apprecia-
tjon of the individual mind and heart,
and spirit, if one chooses. You can
cultivate the soil, or another human
bTinp. or the mind, or the body, but
scarcely the spirit of man. 1t culti-
Yates itself.
Till the soil, pay particular attention
to certain men and women, improve the
mind and develop the body, but let the
spirit of man alone. 1t can take care
of itself, and he who says 1t cannot
does not know it.
The gardener will come to see that
cultivation of the soil, improving its
tilth. is distinct gain to the garden
ing mind since it has to do with the
real medium of plant growth, the one
without which nothing can happen.
We come to take the earth too much
for granted. :,
Yet the soil is the real basis of all
gardening, and this remains true de
spite the fact that few plants will
! grow in water. and a few in air.
1t is the solid earth to which man
| kind turns when agriculture, horticul-
, ture and just plain gardening are con-
/ cerned.
Now anything which takes his mind
back to the earth is good for him as a
| growing soul. Man cannot exist on air