SOILS. To 



for, in two years, the extra pleasure and profit it will yield 

 will pay for all. Nothing is so expensive nor so trouble- 

 some as an ill-prepared soil. 



3. DRAINING. 



There is a false notion very prevalent among people, 

 that where water does not lodge on the surface, of a soil, 

 it is " dry enough." However this may be in regard to 

 meadows or annual crops, it is quite erroneous when ap- 

 plied to orchards or fruit gardens. Stagnant moisture, 

 either in the surface or subsoil, is highly injurious ruin- 

 ous to fruit trees. In such situations, we invariably find 

 them unthrifty and unfruitful, the bark mossy, and the 

 fruit imperfect and insipid. All the soils, then, not per- 

 fectly free from stagnant moisture, both above and below, 

 should be drained. In draining, it is, of course, neces- 

 sary to have a fall or outlet, for the water. Having se- 

 lected this, the next point is to open the drains. We 

 usually make them three feet deep, and wide enough to 

 give sufficient room to work say three feet wide at top 

 narrowing gradually to six inches at the bottom, which 

 should be even, and sloping enough to the outlet of the 

 water to enable it to run. Draining plows are now used 

 advantageously, lessening very much the expense of 

 opening the drains. The plow is constructed something 

 like the subsoiler, and the horses are attached with a long 

 evener, so that one can walk on each side of the drain. 



A sufficient number of men follow the plow to throw 

 out the earth with shovels as fast as it is loosened. 



The two-inch pipe tile is the best for common drains. 

 For outlet drains, the size must be proportioned to the 

 number of small drains which discharge into it. 



Those who have much draining to do, and need infor- 

 mation on tho subject, should procure a work upon the 

 subject. 

 4 



