354 



GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 



DEEP OR PIPE DRAIN 



It cannot be too clearly understood, that soil which is at all 

 waterlogged or retains water unduly never can be sweet or 

 fertile. It may produce coarse weeds freely, but never good 

 garden crops. Wherever water is retained air is excluded, 

 and mineral or other plant foods or crop manures are washed 

 away and destroyed. Thus whilst the majority of soils may 

 need no special drainage, porous pipe drains, laid in from 



two feet to three feet deep into the 

 ground at from twenty-five feet to 

 thirty feet apart, leading to some 

 ditch or stream for outfall, serve a 

 valuable purpose. When these pipe 

 drains are laid down in narrow ex- 

 cavations, some woody material 

 heather, furse, or hedge trimmings 

 should be laid over them before 

 the soil is filled in. This will pre- 

 vent the drains from becoming 

 clogged. Where pipes are not 

 used, rough rubble of any descrip- 

 tion will suffice if some six inches 

 to eight inches thick. Still this is 

 work that is needed only when 



water gives much trouble in gardens. When soil suffers only 

 from exceptional floodings through being near to streams or 

 from very heavy storms, it is well to keep open, on the surface, 

 drains twelve inches wide and ten inches deep, as these greatly 

 facilitate the removal of the water. But all experience goes 

 to prove that 



Trenching ground from twenty inches to thirty inches deep, 

 according to conditions, is productive of immense good, even 

 in relation to drainage. It fre- 

 quently happens that just beneath 

 the top twelve inches of soil there 

 is a hard pan of some almost im- 

 pervious material, which has never 

 been broken up. This, if of stone 

 or rock, is best removed absolutely, 

 but if it be of any softer material, 

 such as can be broken well, it is 

 best in the process of trenching to 

 break it up thoroughly, some ten 

 inches to twelve inches deep, and 

 leave it lying where found before the upper porous soil is 

 replaced. Such impervious subsoils as thus described in 

 time become loose, porous, and fertile. Air sweetens and 



SHALLOW RUBBLE DRAIN 



