8 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 



grow in the hedges that divide the fields, do injury by 

 their shade only. 



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 by. Water- 

 ing with a watering pot is seldom of much use, and it 

 cannot be practised upon a large scale. It is better to 

 trust to judicious tillage and to the dews and rains. 

 The moisture which these do not supply cannot be fur- 

 nished, to any extent, by the watering-pot. A maa 

 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 



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 a bed of lime-stone, 

 sand-stone, or sand below. 



Having fixed upon the. spot for the garden, the next 

 thing is to prepare the ground. This may be done by 

 ploughing and harrowing, until the ground, at top, be 

 perfectly clean; and, then, by double ploughings: that 

 is to say, by going with a strong plough that turns a 

 large furrow and turns it cleanly, twice in the same 

 place, and thus moving the ground to the depth of four- 

 teen or sixteen inches, for the advantage of deeply mov- 

 ing the ground is very great indeed. When this has 

 been done in one direction, it ought to be done across, 

 and then the ground will have been well and truly 

 moved. 



The ground being ploughed in October, ought to be 

 well manured at top with good well-rotted manure, or 

 with soap-boiler's ashes, or some other good manure ; 

 and this might be ploughed, or dug in shallowly. Be- 

 fore the frost is gone in the spring, another good coat of 

 manure should be put on ; well-rotted manure from the 

 yard, ashes, or rather, if ready, from a good compost. 



