THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



645 



of second nature, or instinct. When the soil is just right 

 to grow the crop he has in mind, a good garden should 

 respond to your wish in regard to moisture; you should 

 have sufficient drainage to carry off the surplus water in 

 a wet season, and also be sufficiently open to take artifi- 

 cial watering in dry, hot weatlier. I should recommend 

 a heavy clay loam as tiic ideal soil for all purposes of 

 gardening. Clay will hold moisture and nourishment for 

 most crops longer than any other kind of soil, and it is 

 much less e.xpensive to make a heavy clay soil dry by 

 drainage, than to keep a loose black, or sandy soil sup- 

 plied with water and manure. 



And now, just a word on drainage. There can never 

 be any given average or depth to a thorough and prac- 

 tical drainage system. We have got to be governed 

 wholly by shallow brook, stream or river, or wherever 

 we send our leaders or conductors to flow and empty into. 

 This leader, or conductor, is to a drainage system what 

 the big river is to the small brooks and tributaries that 

 flow into it. It simply acts as a great carrier, and this 

 carrier should always be laid in Akron pipe one foot or 

 more above high v^-ater mark of lake, swamp, stream, open 

 ditch, valley or any other conceivable place, where your 

 only instrument, the level, tells you where to drain to. 

 In most soils we find the seat of trouble about 18 inches 

 or 2 feet below the surface. .\t this depth we generally 

 find a hard crust, which is known by all gardeners as 

 hard pan, and it is conceded that no water can possibly 

 pass downwards through this hard substance, which is 

 often almost as hard as concrete. Why, then, go down 

 to an average depth of 4 feet, which the leading en- 

 gineers advise, as by doing so you are only putting your 

 drain further away from its work. I think there is a 

 recognized lay that, in order to perform most with least 

 effort, we have got to be close to our work, and most 

 assuredly this applies to a drain. Then si.x inches below 

 hard pan is the ideal depth for any drain, and with a 

 sufficient fall, you will never be troubled by frost. Frost 

 only follows moisture, and there can be no water laying 

 in say a four-inch agricukural tile with proper fall. 

 When we build dry walls, we do not go down to an exact 

 depth of four feet with our foundation, so that it would 

 be below the frost line. No, we just dig until we strike 

 a hard bottom, and then we put in 2 feet of 18-inch small 

 stone and proceed to build, and I have never yet seen a 

 dry wall heave with frost where the foundation was made 

 in this manner and rested on hard pan bottom. 



College graduates and leading engineers advocate the 

 small tar paper band placed three-qviarter way around 

 the joints of agricultural tile, and claim this will keep 

 out tree roots. I think a nnich safer and cheaper way 

 would be for them to induce the manufacturers of agri- 

 cultural tile to make regular collars, such as we have on 

 Akron pipe ; then by cementing the joints and provided 

 the cement would not crack, I dare say this would keep 

 out roots, but by doing so we are making more of a car- 

 rier and less of a drain, and this method would not be 

 practical. Roots will ever go where there is moisture, 

 and no one could ever convince me that a small tar paper 

 band placed three-quarter ways around the tile would 

 keep them out. If it were possible to get an X-ray pho- 

 tograph of such a drain, say four years after it was 

 laid, where there were trees near, you would find the 

 roots would be all around the agricultural tile, and I am 

 afraid they would be bold enough, too, to gently push the 

 tar paper aside, but. whether or not, they would most cer- 

 tainly get below this band, and in a few years the whole 

 drain would just he choked full of roots, irrespective of 

 what depth you may have gone. 



The best and onlv drain that will work where there are 



roots is the good, old-fashioned coupled stone drain. 

 The roots will grow quickly enough among the stone, 

 but they cannot kec[) the water from passing through ; 

 thev only spread the ^lones apart, opening new cavities 

 for the water to flow. .-\nd let me here add that the old- 

 fashioned stone drain has never yet been surpassed for 

 induration and the thorough draining of wet land. (Of 

 course, they are much more expensive to make.) Then 

 there is no better way of draining a new garden than 

 through its paths and roads. This method is both eco- 

 nomic and inexpensive. Where you have much rock to 

 blast in your garden, your grades should be established 

 and marked on solid stakes along your walks and roads. 

 This is quickest and Ijest done by employing a local en- 

 gineer. If you cannot procure such a man, then take an 

 ordinary spirit level, and with this simple instrument you 

 can establish grades that will check up near enough. 

 When your borflers and breaks are leveled up to \our 

 paths they should contain a uniform depth of good soil at 

 least two feet above hard pan. This depth should be in- 

 sisted upon, because you cannot possibly grow the best 

 vegetables, flowers and fruit with less than two feet of 

 good soil. A thorough trenching should now be given to 

 the new garden. Those of us who have served our ap- 

 prenticeship in European gardens, know just how to go 

 about this, but we thank God that there is no spade 16 

 inches deep by 10 inches wide in .\merica, and no ten- 

 hour day. A great deal of time and labor can be saved 

 in this work by the judicious use of dynamite. Drive a 

 number of holes with a crowbar or drill, say 8 x 10 feet 

 apart and 4 feet deep, and one stick of 60 per cent, dyna- 

 mite will break up the subsoil more thoroughly than if 

 you trenclied it many times. • It has this advantage, too, 

 over trenching of keeping the poorer subsoil down, and 

 at the same time releasing many gases and chemicals 

 which act with good effect upon the soil. 



ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE 

 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GARDENERS 



October 31— November 4, 1913 



At AMERICAN MUSEUM Of NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK 



During Fall Flower Show of Horticultural Society 



of New York 



BUSINESS MEETING AND ELECTION OF OFFICERS 



Monday, November 3d 



BANQUET, HOTEL ENDICOTT. NEW YORK 



Monday Evening, November 3d 



APPLICATION FOR WEWBERSHIP 



National Association of Gardeners 



I hereby apply for Membership in your Association: — 



Name in full 



Occupation 



Address : 



Date . 



Reference 



Forjvurd Application to M. C. EBEL, Secretary, Madison, 

 N. J., 'with dues, tvhich are $2.00 annually, including subscrip- 

 tion to the official organ of the Association. 



