MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 74l 



remedied by Elkington and Anderson's practice, of finding the 

 spring and tapping it by a drain ; but there was still a 

 thoroughness wanted. The gardener, before he strikes a cut- 

 ting, lays a drain in the bottom of the pot, and when he con- 

 structs a grape border, he may be found laying his drains, on 

 which are placed faggots and turf, and on these a prepared 

 soil for the fine, tender roots of the grape. But the farmer may 

 inquire. Will this pay ? Let him try a small space, and judge 

 for himself. He may inquire. How can this work best be ac- 

 complished ? We must answer to this inquiry, that we know 

 of no better way than the one so generally practised in Eng- 

 land and Scotland, and now coming fast into practice in this 

 country, known as Deonotonizing. This is done, first, by laying 

 drains with tile, which can be procured from Mr. A. S. Babcock, 

 Albany ; an article cheaper than stone, even if near at hand. 

 These drains should be laid from two and a half to four feet 

 deep, and about twenty feet distance one from another, follow- 

 ing his directions in the laying; after this work is done, plough 

 crosswise of these drains, leaving an open furrow ten or twelve 

 inches deep. In the open furrow let your subsoil plough follow 

 to the depth of at least twenty inches from the surface of the 

 ground. When the sod has decayed, cross-plough the subsoil- 

 ing, so as to bring up about two inches of the subsoil, and at 

 every cross-ploughing continue to deepen the soil until the 

 subsoil has been brought to the light and air from its greatest 

 depth. This soil, which was once but eight inches, is now 

 twenty inches deep, freely and fully disintegrated, and fit for 

 vegetables, grasses, or orcharding. 



But where high garden tillage is required, a trench four feet 

 wide and three to five feet deep should be opened; if a springy 

 and cold soil, inclined to clay, one inch of sand may be put on 

 the bottom, and draining tile, three inches in diameter, placed 

 so as to conduct the water oif from the soil ; if a stiff one, it 

 should be mixed with sand, as the trench is filled, by digging 

 another. When the work is done, the earth thrown out of the 

 first trench should be put in the last open trench, and if the 

 work has been weU done the garden will be well drained, and 

 the soil so divided and mixed, that anything, to be desired in 

 open culture, with a suitable dressing of fertilizing matter laid 

 near the surface, will be sure to flourish. 



