. The beginner's garden book; a textbook for the upper grammar grades. Gardening. PREPARING THE SOIL 255 the roots apart. And when the object is to get out the roots, the fork is a great help. After lifting the forkful of earth, the loam is sifted down through the tines of the fork, the roots are left, and these are easily tossed on to little heaps which the worker makes every yard or two, and which may be collected afterward. Or if roots fall through the fork on to the ground, they are easily lifted with the tool, to pile. Fig. 142.—-A root of witch-grass. In spading, take out every one of th
. The beginner's garden book; a textbook for the upper grammar grades. Gardening. PREPARING THE SOIL 255 the roots apart. And when the object is to get out the roots, the fork is a great help. After lifting the forkful of earth, the loam is sifted down through the tines of the fork, the roots are left, and these are easily tossed on to little heaps which the worker makes every yard or two, and which may be collected afterward. Or if roots fall through the fork on to the ground, they are easily lifted with the tool, to pile. Fig. 142.—-A root of witch-grass. In spading, take out every one of these. with the others. With the spade one has to stoop farther, and lift the roots with the hand. Of course, it is wise to take out every stone as large as a hen's egg. Pile them, to carry away later. Spading, properly done, is not an easy task. To get the greatest possible depth, to keep the trench open, to take out all the roots that will sprout again, and all the stones, is a painstaking matter. And if this is not done, what is the re- sult ? A badly spaded garden looks, when finished, just as well as a well-spaded one; but one sees the results in midsummer. The roots have not been able to penetrate into the unspaded ground, the plants have not so much food or water, and the yield is poor. There has been a hard fight with the perennial weeds. Since it is always too late to remedy this with the present crop, the only thing to do is to spade thoroughly at first. Yet I have never found it an uninteresting task. If I hurry, nothing tires me more. But if I take and keep my proper pace, with a moment of ease between every two. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original French, Allen, 1870-1946. New York, The Macmillan Co.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectgardening, bookyear19
