Show CHAPTER X If there are any who like Mrs Graham Gra-ham dislike salt air and object to tho constant Intrusion of tho ocean this narrative will not Interest them Looking back upon It now It seems to me that everything we did that summer Indeed almost everything wo thought and said was In someway some-way connected with the sea And perhaps per-haps this Is not so strange after all since wo looked out upon It from every window and Its murmur was never absent from our ears It was Gabrlello who originated tho plan of a supper on tho rocks Gabrl elle was great In originating but wo used to tell her sho liked to watch other people carry out her Ideas She sat In the hammock and urged her project while her hair blow about her ears and her book slipped unnoticed from her lap We will nsk tho Campbells to join us alia said and Mr Bennett anti Mr Blake of course And tho Grahams I added If you like the tone was not enthusiastic en-thusiastic I must say sho gets on my nerves sho Is so mysterious If HUMID HEGIDNS Proper Conservation of Soil Moisture Mois-ture Needed for Crops In Corn Culture Cultivation Should Follow Every Heavy Rain to Break the Crust and Forma Form-a Soil Mulch To mention the application of the principles of dry forming In tho humid hu-mid regions In a HCUSOU when tho I rains were so heavy and frequent for several weeks In May and Juno that corn cultivation could not go on for two days In succession would almost com n positive offense Hut let us consider the subject n little says Farm and Fireside In hot weather following rains the ground quickly bakes or a mil face crust Is formed particularly on clay soils Now hero Is just where the application of the Campbell system of soil culture comes In with remarkably favorable results In corn culture for example cultivation cultiva-tion should follow every heavy rain ns soon his tho ground Is In proper condition to break the crust and to form n soil mulch For If the crust Is not broken and tho mulch of loose earth formed the soil moisture Is quickly evaporated and If n rainless period of only ten days follows the corn begins to suffer for water Then wo complain of drought and say tho corn needs rain What It really needs Is tho conservation of soil moisture by pioper and timely cultivation This point becomes more forcible whet we consider that the average rainfall In the humid regions during the cern growing season does not furnish fur-nish sufficient available water after allowing for surface drainage and evaporation for tho crop to make a full yield The corn crop depends lamely on water conserved In the sell from the early rains of the season The soil elements of plant food are taken up In a dilute notation of water by the roots The water rises through tho stems to the leaves where It is exhaled leaving the minerals to bo elaborated Into food for the plant For every pound of dry matter In plants from three hundred to over five hundred pounds of water must bo lifted frpm the soil and exhaled through the leaves With this In mind we begin to realize tho enormous enor-mous amount of water used by plants The amount required by different plants varies considerably but take corn for example It Is estimated that the amount of water required by a single acre of corn of average production pro-duction Is fully 3RO tons The reason ot llrst Importance therefore of cultivation culti-vation Is to check the ovaporutl6n of water from the Boll In dry weather and save It for till use of the growing plants There Is no fixed best number of times for the cultivation of corn Under Un-der very favorable conditions of soil nnd molnture three cultivations have made a maximum yield Under other conditions live cultivations wore not enough Dont lay by the corn with a crust on the soil Break It and break It again If necessary even If the work must be done with a one horse finetoothed cultivator running only two Inches deep Land intended for wheat or other fall sown crops should be plowed us soon as possible after harvest Then the seedbed should be prepared and the earth mulch h be maintained by tho harrow until seeding time The comparatively com-paratively few fields that were pro pared for wheat last year on this plan gave magnificent returns In spite of the fall drought the greatest for a quarter century past In tho winter heflt melt u Fields planted on late plowing after tho soil moisture had nearly all evaporated I evap-orated wero either total or partial failures fail-ures The experience In wheat during the past season furnishes a striking object lesson on proper soil culture In brief the application of the principles prin-ciples of dry fannIng Is just us important im-portant In the humid as In the semiarid semi-arid regions |