26 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



est plants in it without good drainage. And drainage 

 is not a matter merely of carrying the water away, 

 as it is carried away from the roof of a house; but 

 rather of carrying it down far enough below the plants 

 to prevent their suffering from it in cold and wet 

 winters; for there may come a time, in hot and dry 

 summers, when even in a stiff clay the plants will 

 need all the moisture they can get. Indeed, plants 

 suffer from a prolonged drought in a stiff clay as much 

 as in light sandy soil, or even more, for the clay, if 

 it is in a crude natural state, bakes and cracks, in 

 some places pressing tightly round the roots of the 

 plants, in others exposing them to the full heat of the 

 sun. It follows, therefore, that it is not enough to 

 drain the moisture away from the soil by means of 

 pipes, even if that could be done in a soil which can 

 be deprived of moisture only by the heat of the sun. 

 What is needed is to change the nature of the soil it- 

 self, so that moisture will have a free passage through 

 it. Without such a change, even the use of drainage 

 in the shape of broken bricks, rubble, &c., some feet 

 below the surface is not a complete remedy, for the 

 soil above will still hold a great deal of moisture if 

 its consistency is not altered. The first step towards 

 doing this is to break it up thoroughly by means of 

 deep digging. Deep digging is necessary on a light 

 soil, but it is even more necessary on a heavy one, 

 for it is one of the chief means of introducing air into 

 the ground and thus of making it fertile, and also of 

 enabling the water to find a free passage through it. 



