Gardening for Amateurs 



109 



Drainage: H Secret of Success 



THE fertility of soils is dependent 

 primarily on an efficient drainage 

 system which ensures the carrying 

 away of all excess of water, and materi- 

 ally aids in keeping the soil uniformly 

 moist. Unproductive soils have been and 

 are still being brought to a fertile state by 

 the application of scientific drainage, but 

 and tliis is most important for the gardener 

 fertile soils are rendered more productive 

 by the same process. Drainage, then, is 

 carried out to improve the condition of the 

 soil by removing stagnant water, which sours 

 the ground and prevents healthy chemical 

 and bacterial action going on in it. The 

 soil is warmed, also, and kept uniformly 

 moist rather than in a varying degree of 

 saturation, while aeration and purification 

 of the ground are more effectively carried out 

 \\hen it contains good drains. 



Planning the System. Should the 

 garden soil be of a sandy, loose nature, over 

 a gravelly subsoil, natural drainage is 

 generally sufficient, and often more than 

 sufficient for all horticultural purposes, but 

 every garden of clay soil is improved by a 

 system of drainage properly laid throughout 

 the area. The first aim in drawing up the 

 system is to see that the pipes are laid on a 

 gentle slope sufficient to give a " flow " to 



the water, and to prevent its settling in the 

 pipes. When the garden is on a slope this 

 is an easy matter, yet if the slope is steep 

 the drains should not take the direction 

 of the slope, but should extend across the 

 fare, so as to give a gentle rather than a 

 quick fall ; as a general rule, however, the 

 slope is never too steep in a well-selected 

 garden, and gardens which do chance to be 

 on quickly rising ground are frequently 

 sufficiently drained by nature to render an 

 artificial system unnecessary. In the level 

 garden the ditch which contains the drains 

 must be of variable depth, shallow at one 

 end and deep at the other so as to give the 

 fall necessary to carry off the water ; a 

 slope of 1 in 50 or 1 foot in about 16 yards 

 will be sufficient, probably, but a slightly 

 greater fall is advisable. Direction is quite 

 immaterial, and ruled solely by contour and 

 by the position of a suitable outlet, which 

 generally takes the form of a well, stream. 

 an open ditch, or a pond. When none of 

 these exists a deep hole must be dug at tin- 

 lowest opening, and this is filled up with 

 stones or other lumpy, indestructible rubbish ; 

 the water percolates through this open ma-- 

 to the lower strata of the soil, and passes 

 away. When the subsoil is of a stiff, im- 

 pervious nature, tin- hole should be dug, if 



A simple method of draining a flower border. A set oi pipes leads to an 

 outlet a hole filled with stones or broken bricks. 



