80 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



underdrainage is a safeguard. California, with a rainless 

 summer, is freed from this danger. 



Too great emphasis, even to indulgence in repetition, 

 can hardly be placed upon the point of view held in this 

 work. We are dealing for the most part with plants which 

 are used before maturity and in which large free growth 

 of foliage stem and seed vessel are the points desired and 

 not mature seed. Most of these plants are also shallow- 

 rooted and are concerned in the lower layers of soil, not 

 as a place of root activity, but rather as a reservoir of 

 moisture and a storehouse of plant food which shall come 

 to them dissolved in the upward movement of abundant 

 water. Consequently, these plants do not require the 

 degree of soil dryness which best ministers to maturing 

 processes, nor do they need such deep penetration of air 

 as is needed to make subsoils hospitable for deep-rooting 

 plants. They are plants, too, which need the maximum 

 percentages of moisture within reach to secure the quick 

 growth and succulence which makes them delicious and 

 profitable. For all these reasons, the view of underdrain- 

 age here presented is somewhat at variance with orthodox 

 drainage tenets held in humid climates and is also widely 

 diverse from views which the writer holds with reference 

 to the drainage requirements of fruit trees. 



