MAKING READY 



or with the sewer, direct. Indeed, modern build- 

 ers provide this, and you will doubtless find, in a 

 hollow, somewhere about the premises, the head 

 of an iron pipe, grated or colandered, to pre- 

 vent the escape through it of stones, leaves and 

 grass. Keep this free at all times, unless you find 

 that your plants appropriate and need all the 

 moisture they can get, for in that case, the less 

 of the precious water that flows away, the better. 

 And while upon this subject, let me urge you 

 not to neglect the watering of your floral charges. 

 Have a hose, or at least, a watering-can, against 

 the droughts so usual to our summers, and re- 

 fresh your garden in early morning or at evening. 

 Nature's method is not to wet the earth when the 

 sun shines. To that end, it overspreads us with 

 clouds when it rains. I do not actually know 

 that watering in full daylight hurts a plant, 

 though florists assure me that it does, but it is 

 best to do the sprinkling toward dusk, for the 

 reason that it is most economical to do so, the 

 evaporation being less, and the plant getting the 

 whole benefit of the ducking. It is better to 

 water the yard once a week, and give a thorough 

 drenching to it than to dribble a few quarts over 



II 



