480 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



perspiratory power the fruit will burst (rom excess 

 oC moisture, as occurs to the plum and jSTrnpe in 

 wet seasons. The melon, although an apparent 

 exception to this rule, is not really so ; that fruit 

 acquires i»s highest excellence in countries where 

 its roots are always immersed in water, as in the 

 floating islands ol Cashmere, the irriffated fields of 

 Persia, and the springy river-beds of India. But 

 it is to be remembered that the leaves of this 

 plant have an enormous perspiratory power, aris- 

 ing partly from their large surface, and partly 

 from the thinness and consequent permeability 

 of their tissue, so that they require a greater sup- 

 ply of fluid than most others; and, in the next 

 place, the heat and bright' liL'ht ol" such countries 

 are capable of decomposing and altering the fluids 

 of the fruit with a degree of rapidity and Ibrce to 

 which we can here have no parallel. In this 

 country the melon does not succeed if its roots are 

 immersed in water, as I asceriained some years 

 ago, in the garden of the Horficultural Society, 

 by repeated experiments. Melons were |)lanted 

 in earih placed on a tank of water, into which 

 their roots quickly made their way ; they grew 

 in a curvilinear iron hot-house, and were trained 

 near to the glass, and consequently were exposed 

 to all the light and heat that can be obtained 

 in this country. They grew vigorously and pro- 

 duced their fruit, but it was not of such good quality 

 as 11 would have been had the supply of water to 

 the roots been less copious. Thus, in the tropics, 

 the quantity of rain that falls in a short time is 

 enormous ; and plants are forced by it into a rapid 

 and powerful vegetation, which is acted upon by 

 alight and temperature bright and high in propor- 

 tion, the result of which is the most perfect or- 

 ganization of which the plants are susceptible: 

 but, if the same quantity of water were given to 

 the same plants at similar periods in this country, 

 a disorganization of their tissue would be the re- 

 sult, in consequence oi' the absence of ' ,^ 





in sufficient quantity. .acc^^ 



The effect of continuing to make /T^e r/' ^'^ ■•y 

 a soil more wet than suits them is^onf^ ijowh to 

 be not only a production of leaves-tgitj ill-tbrmed 

 shootSj instead of flowers and frdJ ^ but, if the 

 water is in great excess, of a genet'i^i yellowness 

 of appearance, owing, as some chemists think, to 

 the destruction by the water, of a blue matter 

 which, by its mixture with yellow, forms the ordi- 

 nary verdure of vegetation. If this condition is 

 prolonged, the vegetable tissue enters into a state 

 of deconj^posiiion, and death ensues. -In some 

 cases the joints of the stem separate, in others the 

 plant rots off" at the ground, and all such results 

 are increased in proportion to the weakness ot 

 light, and the lowness of temperature. De 

 Candolle considers that the collection of stagnant 

 water about the neck of plants prevents the free 

 access of the oxygen of the air to the roots ; but 

 it seems to me that much more mischief is pro- 

 duced by the coldness of the soil in which water is 

 allowed to accumulate. It seems also probable 

 that the extrication of carburetted hydrogen gas is 

 one cause of the injury sustained by plants whose 

 roots are surrounded by stagnant water ; but upon 

 this point we want much more satisfactory evi- 

 dence than we yet possess. 



It is because oi' the danger of allowing any 



bibulous eoil.^ this contrivance is unnecessary ; 

 but in all those which are tenacious, or which, 

 from their low siluaiion, do not permit superfluous 

 water to filter away freely, such a precaution is in- 

 dispensable. No person has ever seen good fruit 

 produced by trees growing in lands imperfectly 

 drained ; and all experienced gardeners must be 

 acquainted with cases where wet unproductive 

 borders have been rendered fruitful "by contrivances 

 which are only valuable because hi' their effi- 

 ciency in regulating the humidity of the soil. JMr. 

 Hiver (Gard. Mag. v. 60) speaks of the uti- 

 lity of mixing stones in great quantities with the 

 soil, " as they prevent the accumulation of water 

 in very wet weather, and retain sufficient moisture 

 for the purposes of the plant in dry seasons ;" and, 

 when we hear of such precautions as are detail- 

 ed in the following good account of preparing a 

 vine border we only learn how important it is to 

 proviile eflectually for the removal of superfluous 

 water from around the roots, and hovv useless a 

 waste of money is that which is expended in form- 

 ing deep rich beds of earth. 



" In preparing a vine border," says Mr. Griffin, 

 of Woodhall, a successful grower of grapes, " one 

 foot in depth of the mould from the surface is 

 cleared out from the whole space; amain drain 

 is then sunk parallel to the house, at the extremity 

 of the border, one loot lower than the bottom of 

 the border ; into this, smaller drains are carried 

 diagonally from the house across the border. The 

 drains are filled with stone. The cross drains 

 keep the whole bottom quite dry ; but if the sub- 

 soil be gravel, chalk, or stone, they will not be 

 necessary. The drainage being complete, the 

 whole bottom is covered with brick, stone, or lime 

 rubbish, about six inches thick, and on this is laid 

 the compost for the vines." {Hurt. Trans, iv. 

 100.) 



The practice of placing large quantities of 

 potsherds or broken tiies at the bottom of tubs, or 

 . pts or other vessels in which plants are rooted, 

 IS only another exemplification of the great neces- 

 sity of attending to the due humidity of the soil, 

 and to the prevention of stagnant water collect- 

 ing about tiie roots ; and the injury committed by 

 worms, upon the roots of plants in pots, is chiefly 

 produced by these creatures reducing the earth to a 

 plastic state, and dragging it among the pots- 

 herds so as to stop up the passage between them 

 and destroy the drainage.* 



One ol the means of guarding the earth against 

 an access on the one hand, and a loss on the 

 other, of loo much water, is by paving the ground 

 with tiles or stones ; and the advantages of this 

 method have been much insisted upon. But it 

 IS certain that, in cold summers at least, such a 

 pavement prevents the soil (i-om acquiring the 

 necessary amount of bottom heat ; and it is pro- 

 bable that, what with this effect, and the obstruc- 

 tion of a free communication between the at- 



* [Glazed flower-pots are totally unfit for most 

 plants, except with the most careful attention to drain- 

 ag;e, and even then they are much inferior to common 

 unglazed ones. The latter permit the excess of wa- 

 ter to escape throuo;h their porous sides, which is 

 impossible in the £i;lazed pot; in which, if the aper- 

 u - u ^ - - 1 ture at the bottom become stopped, the earth is sodden 



accumulation o( water about the roots of plants with water, the plant suffers and soon perishes. A. 

 that drainage is so very important. In very! J. D.] 



