60 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



the bores properly meet wlieii put down, and cannot move 

 afterwards. It must be remembered, too, that, however well 

 ground may be naturally drained, it is always improved by 

 artificial drainage. It lets air into the soil, and, as it were, 

 keeps it alive. It aids greatly in the amelioration of " the 

 ground, and in almost every case improves the quahty or the 

 quantity of the crops, and generally both. To grow florists' 

 flowers in undrained ground is a perpetual sacrifice. A man 

 who does so had need be always buying, and yet will never 

 be complete in his collections. Fruit-trees and kitchen-garden 

 crops would in many cases be nearly doubled in produce, and 

 improved in health ; yet not one garden in a hundred is 

 drained, unless the soil had been unworkable without it, and 

 the operation had been forced on the occupier. 



Nothing is more common than to hear people say of old 

 gardens, that they are worn out ; whereas the soil has been 

 soured for jesiis with stagnant water, which has been fed by 

 the washings of whatever manure was applied, until all 

 attempts to find appropriate dressings have failed to make any 

 distinct improvement. The cause has been ineflicient drain- 

 age, or none at all. The remedy is simple. In like manner, 

 wall-fruit trees have, perhaf)S, been dwindling for years ; the 

 roots have got into sour soil, and cannot be healthy. The old 

 soil is occasionally taken out, and new put to the borders ; but 

 if the ground be not drained, it is all labour m vain ; the trees 

 will continue unhealthy, the good soil will soon be as sour as 

 that which has been removed, the trees condemned, new ones 

 planted, and that only to decline, like the old ones, if the 

 ground be not efficiently drained. In short, draining and 

 trenching will cure the most sour and unproductive garden, if 

 it be centuries old. 



Furrow and Surface. — In fields and farmlands, meadows, 

 and the like, the farmers often resort to furrows, ditches, and 

 what is called surface-draining. The objections to furrows and 

 top-drains for arable land are not only the same as apply to aU 

 shallow drains, but the loss of ground is very great ; and those 

 who are content with this make-shift mode of getting rid of 

 only a portion of the evil by the sacrifice of a considerable 

 portion of good, may be called penny wise and pound foolish. 

 Deep furrows between all the lands are a very temporary make- 

 shift. There is nothing more annoying to a good farmer than 

 to see, as he passes, the water lying in the furrows of a field, 



