26 Southern Gardener^s Praciical Manual 



under-drainage, deep tillage, or trenching, seemingly- 

 extravagant manuring, and facilities for irrigation. 

 The ditches for the underdrains should be not less than 

 three feet deep nor more than twentj- -five feet apart. If 

 the bottoms of the ditches are firm and rock accessible, 

 the rock culvert drain will answer as well as tile and 

 involve no outlay of cash except for labor. 



A row of stones as large as a man's fist placed on 

 each side of the bottom of the ditch, and another row so 

 placed as to bridge across these, will make the culvert. 

 Trash or straw thrown over these will prevent the loose 

 soil from sifting through the interspaces while filling 

 the ditches. The writer constructed rock -culvert under- 

 drains in 1854 which are still effective. Such under- 

 drains prevent the possibility of super -saturation of the 

 soil during rainy seasons, and equally prevent the evil 

 effects of drought by not only increasing the capillary 

 moisture from below but by so deepening the pasturage 

 for the roots of the plants as to make them drought- 

 resisting. 



A garden of the size proposed may be reasonably 

 well protected from the injurious effects of drought, if 

 located near the well and house and slightly below them, 

 by conducting all waste water through the underdrains 

 by means of a pipe provided for the purpose. Besides 

 the benefit thus received by the garden, the sanitation 

 of the premises will be conserved by preventing waste 

 water from being thrown around the yard, a practice far 

 too common around private homes. Wherever practi- 

 cable, water pressure should be provided in storage tanks 

 for general use about the premises, for garden- and 



