A Local Expert on "Conditioning" As the Starting Point!
It is usual to find, at the commencement of a volume or compilation dealing with subjects like horticulture, some ponderous maxim such as "The Soil is the Foundation of Agriculture,"
Sow the Blast and reap the Whirlwin or anything that will help to window-dress the book cover or having found Shanghai gardeners as a whole intelligent, will refrain from any such The difficulty will be to tell them something that they do not already kno and thus to maintain that moral ascendency that the printed word is supposed to In dealing with soil prepara [who are not keen?) have their own very good ideas on this subject, far as the actual handling of the soil itself is concerned. Therefore, for purposes of the present and succeeding articles the words soil preparation will to a large extent' be taken in the sense of preparation with fertilizers. A few introductory words may be permitted on general soil "conditioning" for the benefit of beginners.
The best time for general soil conditioning is undoubtedly late autumn or Winter. By conditioning, meant, for present burp digging up, reking, hoeing, and general "massage." "Allusion will be made to other factors, such as addi tio, of organic maiter—in due course, There are two main objects to be gained by this preliminary—spadework—attained. preservation of soil moisture and/or establishing a good tilth, "Other benefits of course accrue, such ins aeration of the soil, but for the present we will confine ourselves to the two main have over the reading public. surface. At the surface of the soil, evaporation is always going on—unless it is raining or freezing, and this causes an upward pulling movement of the whole film, which rises steadily to make good the loss sustained at the surface, Now anyone would think that disturbing the soil surface and letting air in would result in more drying up than if things were left alone. "This however is one of the many instances where fact contradicts. theory. The loosening of, the surface soil does in fact dry up the top few inches, but by the very act of becoming dry this forms a watertight blanket—exactly like the "damp course" in a house wall—which stops or greatly retards the rate of evaporation from the top of the molsture film, now some inches below the surface. A sandy soil is the easiest to "mulch" in this way and, a sandy mulch is the most effective of any (provided it be kept loose), the rate of evaporation and drying up of sand being otherwise extremely rapid, and thereby subject to drought.
Frost As A Help ture by breaking up the surface soil is a very interesting and essentially natural phenomenon, Water 'Film'
Capillary Moistun it should be remark-the same as free' water, the former feeding the roots and the latter drowning them. By soil moisture is meant the thin fib of water that surrounds each particle in a moist soil. In a soil which has consolidated, either from being trodden on or from the effects of its own gravity, this film of moisture stretches from particle te particle in an unbroken web. It is Literally clastic, The lower descends towards the "water table" the denser it gets, in the same way that air becomes denser the nearer it approaches to the earth Object two, the establishment of '4 good tilth, is attained through the help of frost. Any average soil it left to itself will consolidate and dig up as Jumps, Lumps exposed to the action of frost will suiter a riving process from the expansion. of the moisture inside as it becomes ice, With the thaw they will crumble and, if not tackled too soon after the thaw, will show exemplary docility. If attacked while the melted ico and frost is still wet within them, there will be a danger of puddling, so let them dry out thoroughly, Tt is one thing to obtain a stood tilth, and it is another to maintain it, Next Thursday this subject will be discussed with particular reference to Shanghai and similarly alluvial soils—C. T, Birdwood.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.