Agriculture of Pennsylvania Volume 7 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 Excerpt: ...field the rough surface of clods, and the mellow seed-bed of six or eight inches, and if a clover sod were turned down early in harvest, it might be treated much in the same manner as our supposed fallow-field. 4. As to surface tillage, such as is required for crops of corn, roots, and tubers. For these crops, as, indeed, for all crops, the same care and the same methods just indicated above should be pursued in preparing the seedbed. But after the plant has appeared above ground, then the surface cultivation should begin, and should be maintained, at frequent intervals, until the plant has attained such a degree of strength as easily to outgrow and keep down all weeds that would rob it of its proper nutriment in the soil. This frequent surface-stirring (more or less deep, according to the nature of the plant, and according as its roots run near the surface or far below) is of use in various ways. It destroys weeds; it keeps the soil loose and open, thus allowing the air and the dews to reach the roots from above, and moisture and mineral food to reach them by capillary attraction from below. It is especially needful after a heavy or protracted rainfall. Who has not observed how tightly sealed up is the surface of a corn-field or potato-field after a heavy shower, and what myriads of weeds crowd each other for room in less than a week after the shower? We do not profess to fully understand, much less to explain to you, how the growth of the plant is influenced and perfected by the combined action of the soil, the air, the dew, the heat and light of the sun, and of the mineral substances that come up with the moisture rising from below. But experience teaches us that all or most of these agencies are needful. Why is it that the gardener or the grower of vege...