MARCH. 107 



a constant and regular supply of moisture is indispensable in 

 all our gardening operations, to attain the best results : — 



" The great importance of seasonable showers to the farmer 

 is well understood ; and perhaps there would be no one bet- 

 ter indication of the agricultural capacities of a country than 

 the records of the rain gauge — giving the number of rainy 

 days in each month, with the quantity of water that fell, for 

 a few successive years. 



" When the spring commences, the earth is usually satu- 

 rated with water to a great depth, and so low down that the 

 springs are all discharging their greatest quantity. Wheat 

 sown the fall before, and well rooted, starts forward vigor- 

 ously before the ground can dry up, and a few showers in 

 May and June insure a large growth. Not so with corn, and 

 the other spring crops. Dry weather must commence before 

 the ground is in a condition to receive them ; and as they 

 take the whole season to grow and ripen, many seasonable 

 showers are necessary to their production with success. The 

 corn crop may be quite unpromising the last day of June, 

 and yet on the first day of September the whole aspect may 

 be changed. July and August, if warm and wet, make a 

 crop of corn in this State. Wheat is better off if these 

 months are dry and comparatively cool. So it rarely hap- 

 pens that both corn and wheat succeed fully in the same 

 year — but sometimes they do. 



" When the frost leaves the ground in the spring it is full 

 of water, and a cubic foot of this saturated earth is to water 

 in its specific gravity as five to three ; dried to the moisture 

 suitable to have seed put in it, it loses one twelfth of its 

 weight ; when perfectly dried it loses one third. 



" Mr. Dalton, in making his experiments, came, to the con- 

 clusion that when it had lost one sixth of its weight, by 

 drying, it was not too dry to support vegetation. When it 

 had lost two ninths it appeared like top soil in summer. 

 Hence every foot of earth in depth, so saturated, contains 

 seven inches of water, and it may part with a quarter of its 

 water, or even one half, and not be too dry for supporting 

 vegetation. This is the fund of water with which Ave start 



