32 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



an excess of organic matter and too little of the inorganic, or mineral, to give it con- 

 sistence. Sweeter, more nutritious food is essential to healthy growth to economically 

 grown crops of fruit. 



The successful practice of draining depends on a proper knowledge of the earth's strata 

 and their relative degrees of porosity. Some soils enable water to percolate through them 

 freely, others do not; it then runs along their surfaces, and is conducted to lower levels. 

 Meeting with impervious materials, it is dammed, and the superincumbent strata being 

 porous, the water is readily forced up, soon rendering the soil too wet and cold for cultural 

 purposes ; where the overlying soil is tenacious it is gradually softened by the stagnant 

 water below, and slowly but certainly becomes swamped. 



Fig. 6. SANDY LOAM DEAINING EEQTJIEED. (Scale : inch = 1 foot.) 



The object in draining, therefore, is to catch the water flowing through or lodging in 

 the lower, inferior stratum or subsoil and conduct it away, or in other words to prevent 

 its rising within a given distance of the surface. 'The first effect of the removal of stag- 

 nant water is the disappearance of coarse sub-aquatic weeds ; then the trees become 

 healthier, produce much more abundantly, and are more economically cultivated. Usually 

 soil that is the wettest in winter is the driest in summer, and consequently trees which 

 are injured by an excess of water in winter suffer again from lack of moisture in sum- 

 mer. Cold undrained land chills the atmosphere, and consequently the blossoms of fruit 

 trees are the more liable to be destroyed by frost in spring, and the unripened wood to 

 sustain serious damage ir winter. 



