All this is only a roundabout way of saying that frequent shallow surface tillage conserves moisture. The comparatively dry and loose mulch breaks up the capillary connection between the surface soil and the under soil, and while the mulch itself may be useless as a foraging ground for roots, it more than pays its keep by its preventing of the loss of moisture; and its own soluble plant-foods are washed down into the lower soil by the rains.
As often as the surface becomes compact, the mulch should be renewed or repaired by the use of the rake or cultivator or harrow. Persons are deceived by supposing that so long as the surface remains moist, the land is in the best possible condition; a moist surface may mean that water is rapidly passing off into the atmosphere. A dry surface may mean that less evaporation is taking place, and there may be moister earth beneath it; and moisture is needed below the surface rather than on top. A finely raked bed is dry on top; but the footprints of the cat remain moist, for the animal packed the soil wherever it stepped and a capillary connection was established with the water reservoir beneath. Gardeners advise firming the earth over newly planted seeds to hasten germination. This is essential in dry times; but what we gain in hastening germination we lose in the more rapid evaporation of moisture. The lesson is that we should loosen the soil as soon as the seeds have germinated, to reduce evaporation to the minimum. Large seeds, as beans and peas, may be planted deep and have the earth firmed about them, and then the rake may be applied to the surface to stop the rise of moisture before it reaches the air.
Two illustrations, adapted from Roberts’s “Fertility,” show good and poor preparation of the land. Figure 93 is a section of land twelve inches deep. The under soil has been finely broken and pulverized and then compacted. It is mellow but firm, and is an excellent water reservoir. Three inches of the surface is a mulch of loose and dry earth. Figure 94 shows an earth-mulch, but it is too shallow; and the under soil is so open and cloddy that the water runs through it.
When the land is once properly prepared, the soil-mulch is maintained by surface-working tools. In field practice, these tools are harrows and horse cultivators of various kinds; in home garden practice they are wheel-hoes, rakes, and many patterns of hand hoes and scarifiers, with finger-weeders and other small implements for work directly among the plants.
A garden soil is not in good condition when it is hard and crusted on top. The crust may be the cause of wasting water, it keeps out the air, and in general it is an uncongenial physical condition; but its evaporation of water is probably its chief defect. Instead of pouring water on the land, therefore, we first attempt to keep the moisture in the land. If, however, the soil becomes so dry in spite of you that the plants do not thrive, then water the bed. Do not sprinkle it, but water it. Wet it clear through at evening. Then in the morning, when the earth begins to dry, loosen the surface again to keep the water from getting away. Sprinkling the plants every day or two is one of the surest ways of spoiling them. We may water the ground with a garden-rake.
Hand tools for weeding and subsequent tillage and other hand work.
Any of the cultivators and wheel-hoes are as useful for the subsequent tilling of the crop as for the initial preparation of the land, but there are other tools also that greatly facilitate the keeping of the plantation in order. Yet wholly aside from the value of a tool as an implement of tillage and as a weapon for the pursuit of weeds, is its merit merely as a shapely and interesting instrument. A man will take infinite pains to choose a gun or a fishing-rod to his liking, and a woman gives her best attention to the selecting of an umbrella; but a hoe is only a hoe and a rake only a rake. If one puts his personal choice into the securing of plants for a garden, so should he discriminate in the choice of hand tools, to secure those that are light, trim, well made, and precisely adapted to the work to be accomplished. A case of neat garden tools ought to be a great joy to a joyful gardener. So I am willing to enlarge on the subject of hoes and their kind.