THE 



E s 



yo&OOC 7<;<-c<:-o&o**>c<-&c«o&o 



August, 1860. 



WET SEASON and a deficiency of sun-heat demand from us 

 ^ the fullest exercise of skill to turn to the hest account 

 the circumstances at our command in the various de- 

 partments of horticulture. In soils well drained, 





vegetation will suffer less than in cold clays, which 



■jg get water-logged ; and wherever the drainage has not had 

 the attention it requires, the example of 1860 ought to suffice 

 to prove that efficient drainage is a matter of first importance 

 to warm and aerate the subsoil, and enable plants to maintain 

 a healthy root-action. Many a place where the water holds in 

 the ground stubbornly might be improved instanter by digging a few 

 trenches ; or, better still, a few well-shaped holes, ten or twelve feet 

 / \ deep ; which, if shored up with stout elm boards, would last a life- 

 time, and in dry seasons afford a supply of water for irrigation. In plant- 

 ing out winter-stock in the kitchen-garden, an increased temperature and. 

 some immunity from wet and frost may be secured by throwing the earth 

 up in banks, and planting on them. Even the north sides of such banks 

 will be better than the level ground where the soil is retentive of moisture, 

 and the alleys will help to cany the -water away to the lowest levels and 

 outlets. There will be a probability of many severe losses this season, 

 unless every possible precaution is taken to get stored up in the soil as 

 much beat as can be got from the flickering sunbeams. It was the gorged 

 state of the sap-vessels through long-continued rains which caused the de- 

 cimation of vegetable crops in the sudden and severe frost of last October. 

 In low, cold grounds the plants literally melted into a pulp ; in high, dry 

 soils they were unb armed. Whatever the situation and soil to be dealt 

 with, it is always possible to create a lower level for the reception of 

 superfluous moisture ; and we advise those who have to do with soil 

 fortunately placed as to getting rid of water, to sacrifice a few square 

 yards and a few days' work, and even a few pounds' worth of timber, or 

 puddling or cementing, to relieve the cultivated plots of the excessive 

 amount of moisture with which they are now saturated. Among planta- 

 tions of fruit it will be well to cut away a good deal of the rank grow th of 



VOL. III. — xo. VIII. I 



