34 OPERATIONS OF GARDENING. PART I. 



by the weight of the stone the pot is drawn up, he empties it, 

 and then forces it down into the water again. 



3. By a contrivance exactly similar in principle, sometimes 

 a wooden trough is employed instead of the earthen pot. One 

 end of the trough is forced down by a man into the water, and, 

 on then being let go, is raised by the weight of a stone, that 

 outbalances it, so high that the water is discharged on to the 

 land at the other end. 



In some localities the water drawn from wells is so brackish 

 that the soil watered with it can never be brought into a fertile 

 condition, as is the case at Agra and Delhi. In such situations 

 it is only where gardens lie contiguous to a river, whence water 

 may be derived for the purpose of irrigation, that they can be 

 cultivated with much success. 



DKAINAGE. 



Drainage consists in the withdrawing of water from the soil 

 when all the benefit needed has been derived from it. No 

 operation is more indispensable to the well-being of a garden 

 than this, though often it is found exceedingly difficult to be 

 effected. In some localities, indeed, in the North- West Pro- 

 vinces, it proves to be all but impracticable ; for there, from 

 the country being nearly of a perfect level, there is nowhere 

 whither the waste water may be carried off. In such places, 

 after heavy rains, a large portion of the garden will be flooded, 

 and lie completely under water for a week or more. Few of the 

 plants that have been in this way submerged, and then after- 

 wards exposed to the heat of a scorching sun, but soon perish. 

 Frequently too, about the same time, violent winds prevail, and 

 fruit-trees and large shrubs, that have had their roots loosened 

 in the swamped soil, are easily blown over, and, in most instances, 

 destroyed : as before observed, this is an evil often quite irre- 

 mediable. The best that can be done is, having ascertained the 

 portion of ground that lies lowest, to plant out there such things 

 as are of least value and most easily replaced, as well as those 

 that are least likely to suffer from excess of wet. 



In Bengal, though the ground is equally level, the same 

 difficulty is not so much experienced, from the numerous ditches 

 and tanks there, into which the waste water may be speedily 

 withdrawn. 



