82 Gardening 



method of treatment one should write to the agricultural 

 college of his state. 



It is well to lay out a garden that is inclined to be 

 wet in beds rather than in rows for level culture (page 



93)- 



How to tell if a soil is poorly drained. To determine 

 whether a plot is too wet for garden purposes, sink a 

 hole in the earth with a spade. If free water runs 

 into the hole and stands within 18 inches of the surface, 

 the soil is poorly drained. In such a soil, water will 

 often stand close to the surface or even on the surface 

 after heavy rains. In early spring this condition may 

 do no damage except to delay planting, but if with ordi- 

 nary rainfall the soil is watersoaked in midsummer, 

 drainage is necessary. The roots of garden crops need 

 to go down deeply into the soil, but they cannot thrive 

 below the level of the free water, which may happen to 

 be near the surface. 



In draining a garden, it should be borne in mind that a 

 ditch will remove the free water only when it leads to 

 lower levels, and also that it will remove water only to 

 the level of the bottom of the ditch. 



Increasing capillary water in the soil. By tillage and 

 by adding vegetable matter, the gardener can greatly in- 

 crease the power of the soil to furnish water to the grow- 

 ing crops. A coarse-grained and lumpy soil does not 

 hold much water. It dries out quickly after a rain, and 

 capillary water does not rise into it from lower levels in 

 abundance or with uniformity because of the large and 

 irregular air spaces between the lumps. Good tillage 

 makes such soils more finely granular, so that they can 



