56 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



irrigation, some essential service is rendered. How manj 

 tiiousand plots of ground, however, are there, where there is 

 every convenience for draining, but where it is nevertheless 

 neglected ! And yet florists, professional as well as amateur, 

 complain that their ranunculuses fail ; that their tuhps do 

 not succeed as they could wish ; that they cannot grow poly- 

 anthuses ; that their puiks make no grass, and are often lost ; 

 that their roses do not bloom finely; and so on, ad infinitum^ 

 through the whole range of flowers that grow iu beds and 

 borders. In nine cases out of every ten, the fault is in the 

 stagnant water beneath. How necessary it is, then, to drain 

 their ground in the best way that circumstances will permit ; 

 and yet how difficult it is to move them to that very neces- 

 sary operation. 



Neglect of Draining. — Volumes have been written, news- 

 papers have been stuffed, essays upon essays have been pub- 

 lished, with, the best information upon the subject of draining, 

 without, or nearly without, effect as regards farms, and almost 

 entirely without any corresponding benefit among gardens. 

 It is true, there are many productions of the garden which 

 flourish in ill-draiued ground. The tuberous iris and flag 

 tribe grow healthy and robust, but they would do the same in 

 a swamp ; so that it must not be imagined that, because they 

 do well, the bulbous iris is to flourish also. The finest col- 

 lections of the English iris — so called because they have 

 seeded freely and been raised abundantly in this country — 

 have been known to dwindle away to nothiug ; while the 

 sword-leaved, tuberous family have increased beyond all ma- 

 nagement. Nor must it be supposed that where the large 

 and coarse varieties of the ranunculaceae grow vigorously, the 

 garden ranunculus must necessarily succeed. There is no 

 affinity between the florists' improved and necessarily more 

 tender kinds and their coarser predecessors or relations. The 

 brier will flourish where the more splendid varieties of rose 

 would die ; and although many will flourish when grafted or 

 budded on the dog-rose, there are many that will not succeed 

 at all. In short, if we were to write for a week, we could not 

 too strongly impress on the minds of gardeners the vast 

 advantages derived from draining. We have known a lawn 

 to be studded ^vith fine shrubs, that have, after a while, stood 

 almost still, and, after a little longer interval, begun to dwindle. 

 "We have seen the same lawn drained, without disturbing the 



