1. 1 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 11 



roots of trees; but, every other plant does. A 

 Kitchen-garden should, therefore, have no large 

 trees near it. In the spring and fall tall trees do 

 great harm even by their shade, which robs the 

 garden of the early and the parting rays of the sun. 

 ft is, therefore, on all accounts, desirable to keep 

 all such trees at a distance. 



15. If it be practicable, without sacrificing too 

 much in other respects, to make a garden near to 

 running water, and especially to water that may be 

 turned into the garden, the advantage ought to be 

 profited of; but as to watering with a watering 

 pot, it is seldom of much use, and it cannot be prac- 

 tised upon a large scale. It is better to trust to ju- 

 dicious tillage and to the dews and rains. The mois- 

 ture which these do not supply cannot be furnished, 

 to any extent, by the watering-pot. A man will 

 raise more moisture, with a hoe or spade, in a day, 

 than he can pour on the earth out of a watering-pot 

 in a month. 



SOIL. 



16. The plants, which grow in a garden, prefer, 

 like most other plants, the best soil that is to be 

 found. The best is, loam of several feet deep, with 

 i bed of lime-stone, sand-stone, or sand, below. 

 But, we must take what \vefind, or. rather, what we 

 happen to have. If we have a choice, we ought to 

 take that which comes nearest to perfection, and, if 

 we possibly can, we ought to reject clay, and gra- 

 vel, not only as a top soil, but as a bottom soil, 

 however great their distance from the surface. See 

 paragraph 109. 



17. Oak-trees love clay, and the finest and heavi- 

 est wheat grows in land with a bottom of clay ; but, 

 if there be clay within even six feet of the surface, 

 '.here will be a coldness in the land, which will, in 



