The Chippeway herald. [volume], May 01, 1909, Image 1

About The Chippeway herald. [volume] (White Earth, Minn.) 1902-19??

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
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VOL. 8 WHITE EARTH, MINN.
Garden Making
Easy.
It is one thing to plant a garden
and another thing to make the plants
in it grow and mature in the best way
possible. The first essentials are good
soil, good prepartion. good seed, and
proper planting.
The last, bw. not the least, is good
cultivation.
Garden crops and all crops are cul
tivated for two main reasons, for
improving the physical and chemical
condition of the soil, and for killing
weeds. It is usually held that the
killing of weeds is the more essential
of these, but the former reason is just
as important as the latter. Both ob
jects may be accomplished in the same
cultivation.
Cultivation may be, and often should
be, commenced before the plants are
up. Plants and seeds are often plant
ed for various reasons before the soil
is in perfect condition.
Often there are remaining clods and
ridges that can not b e properly reduc
td till later in the season. In many
cases manure and other fertilizers are
scattered unevenly over the soil that
should become uniformly incorporated
with it. Early potatoes, for instance,
are often planted by simply plowing
the ground and making furrows with-
out any harrowing or other prepara-
tion for a fine soil seed bed. The
reduction of these resulting clods and
ridges at as early a date as possible,
when the soil becomes dry enough, to
work properly, is imperative for enough
to work properly, is imperative for
early, vigorous growth and maturity
of the potato crop.
The harrow is one of tl t best tools
for early cultivation of garden crops.
Both lengthwise and cross harrowing
may be made before the plants are up.
After they are up, harrow along the
rows, either with a small harrow a
little narrower than the width of the
rows or w ith an aharrow with a few of
“Edvic'i* tion, Civilization and Citizenship.”
the middle teeth removed or driven up
high enough so that they will not injure
the young plant. With a twohorse A
harrow one row may be harrowed at
each through, reducing the clods and
making th . surface soil finer and moie
even than can be done with any other
cultivator
this harrow cultivation may be contin
ued two or three times to advantage-
It not onß
and makes fi
so kill ■■/young wee s and works fir.
soil around the young plants, without
covering them or bending them down.
Do not be afraid to harrow garden
crops. When the soil is dry' or in a
good working condition, it will do
much good. Harrowing with all teeth
in the harrow just as the plants are
coming up, will assist many of the
week and struggling ones to push their
way throu ;h the crust, in case a crust
has been formed. Except in dry, loose
soil, is difficult for nearly all kinds of
beans to push their way out and up.
If the surface soil is much crusted.
many of them perish in the attempt,
and a raseeding is often necessary.
The best patch of lima beans that
the writer ever grew, were harrowed
both ways at the time they began to
come up. When the man was started
on the work, he told us that he thought
it was if not n good thing to harrow
bsans, for he had never known anyone
else doing : t. He said. “I will harrow
them if you say so, but I think it will
kill them. Then he had harrowed
them length ways, we had him to turn
on them fi>r a cross harrowing. At
this the man complained loudly,saying
that there would not be a bean left in
the patch. His expression indicated
that we we. e a better success as a lun
atic than a gardener. When the cross
harrowing was completed, the man ad
mited that the harrowing did put the
soil in a nice fix, and that it did not
tear out to many beans after all.
Within a few days he admited that he
had never seen so nice and even a
stand of beans in his life. The harrow
19C9.
AJter the plants are up
luces the clods and mixes
surface soil, but al-
helped .hundreds of the beans to come
up, and put the soil in such fine con
dition that the young plants began to
grow rapidly. With a two-horse
harrow we have harrowed sweet corn
when it was nearly a foot high, doing
it with absolutely no injury, but a vast
amount of good. The harrow requires
•i energy on the part of the
operator than any other cultivator, and
less phys.
perhaps dees mor® good to the plants.
*1 o reduce large clods without caua
ir- ’ “m to roll on the cultivated plants
a roller is a good tool. The
roller should be used only when the
soil is sufficiently dry to prevent pack
ing. The roller, if sufficiently
weighted, will crush the clods to a fine
condition, and leave the surface of the
soil very smooth. The roller should
be followed with the harrow, and then
by the shovel cultivator.
Cultivation of garden crops should
begin early, even before th* plants are
up. Almo*t all soils settle and pack
more or less under the influence of
gravity and rains. When the soil be
comes compact less air can enter and
the root* ©f the plants suffer for want
of oxygen and other atmospheric gases.
When no early cultivation is given
weeds will soon begin to grow, and
there is more danger of the soil drying
out, with a cosequnent stunting of the
young plants.
Stirring the soil to the depth of
three, four or five inches covers up and
kills weeds, opens up the soil for
the admission of air to the roots of the
plants, mixes the ingredients of the
soil, and breaks the surface to prevent,
capillary water from escaping by
evaporation. All these things are nec
essary for healthful and rapid plant
growth. *
It is a good thing to get an early
start of the weeds. If they are allowed
to grow they extract rich plant foods
from the soil, robbing the cultivated
plants, and they soon begin to shade
the.a, making tbsm grow up spending,
imk and colorloss. Weeds are like
disease, easier to cheek in the begin-
Mlh
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NO. 9 - 10