III. DRAINAGE 



F there is any one thing 

 about amateur floriculture 

 more earnestly advocated 

 and urged by writers on 

 plant-growing than drain- 

 age, and more systemati- 

 cally ignored by the parties 

 to whom the advice is given, I do not know 

 what it is. 



It seems difficult to convince amateur gar- 

 deners that drainage is a matter of prime 

 importance. "A whim," some of them call 

 it. Others speak of it as a "pet theory." 

 Now it is neither a whim nor a theory. 



On many farms one finds low places where 

 not much but bushes and semi-aquatic plants 

 grow. Farmers clear off these places, and 

 attempt to make grass grow there, but their 

 attempts generally result in failure. Some- 

 thing is wrong with the soil. 



But when the farmer under-drains these 

 marshy places by the use of tile, which allows 

 the excess water to drain out of the soil above, 



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