WATER m GARDENING. 



drv climate is an advantage instead of a drawback ; and it actually enables the Dutch, 

 the ]iel<i-i:uis, and tho French, to supply Covent Garden market, in London, with 

 garden products both earlier and better than the very skillful and energetic English 

 market gardeners, with their abundant resources, can produce. Our summer climate 

 is similar in many respects to that of France and Belgium ; and wc are well persuaded 

 that a general adoption of their thorough hydropathic system would work such an 

 improvement on our garden esculents as would greatly increase their consumption, 

 and enhance the pleasure and profit of that most useful branch of gardening. 

 Another great advantage of an abundant supply of water, is the facility it aftbrds 

 for the application of liquid manure — a species of food that every good gardener 

 regards as indispersable to the proper growth of kitchen garden plants, and of great 

 importance to every branch of gardening. 



Let us look at the question in an economical point of view. Under the present 

 system, a very small garden in a dry time will consume the labor of at least one man 

 in watering. He probably has to raise it with a hand-pump, and carry it in a common 

 watering-pot from the barnyard, or at least a considerable distance, to the place where 

 it is to be applied. The gardener is probably short of help, and many other things are 

 suflering, so that he is compelled to stop watering as soon as he has given the most 

 needy cases enough to keep them alive till next day. All his watering, all his labor 

 and time, are expended in " keeping things alive." Now suppose that two or three 

 hundred dollars were expended at once in providing an efficient means of raising 

 water into an ample reservoir, from which it could be conducted in pipes to the 

 various quarters of the garden. One man could do more watering than five by tho 

 common system, and it could be applied in such quantities as would accomplish the 

 desired end. ' The actual gain of time and increased products in two or three years 

 would offset the original cost, to say nothing of the convenience, and the satisfaction 

 that the gardener and proprietor both would derive from it. Under such an arrange- 

 ment, dry weather would lose the terror with which it is now regarded, and the kitchen 

 garden would assume an entirely new aspect. 



"We shall not at this time attempt any minute description of the various modes of 

 raising water now practiced. The natural facilities that every man finds on his own 

 grounds, or under his control, must guide him in the choice of means. Some may 

 have access to streams, lakes, or other unfailing sources of supply on the surface of 

 the ground, easily raised by a ram or force-pump, and conducted in pipes to a suitable 

 place for a reservoir. Others may be compelled to sink wells, and raise the water 

 with buckets or pumps. In such cases it is economy to sink the well in a place suit- 

 able for a reservoir, that the water may pass directly into it from the bucket or pump. 

 The French market gardeners and florists in the neighborhood of Paris, whose arrange- 

 ments are the most economical and convenient wc have seen, ,'ivariably have a 

 well in their garden, located on the highest ground. Beside the well is an ample 

 reservoir, from which the water is conducted to all parts of the garden. Some of the 

 more old-fashioned among them raise the water by means of buckets. A wooden 

 frame is erected over the well, to support an upright shaft, on which is fixed 



