GROUND FOR A GARDEN. 137 



selfishness in character. There is no chance for 

 real improvement till selfishness is reduced to a 

 judicial regard for self-interest ; and the land 

 that persists in holding water, instead of giving 

 it to the air above and springs below, is past 

 praying for. Draining is a prime necessity, 

 and the owner must set about it at once, unless 

 he would have his garden a scene of disappoint- 

 ment and almost wasted labor. If there are 

 stones on the land, in no better way can he 

 dispose of them than in the formation of drains. 

 If the garden so slopes that one drain, five or six 

 feet deep, can be cut through near the centre, 

 all the better. If the soil is very stiff and wet, 

 then side drains, fifteen feet apart, and three 

 and a half feet deep, should be dug, leading 

 into the main ditch ; but if the subsoil is so 

 porous as to give the water some chance to get 

 through then these laterals can be cut twenty- 

 five feet apart. The nearness and number o/ 



