PROPAGATION AND CHAP. 



ing plants is a great thing. Not only is it of great be- 

 nefit to the plants ; not only does it greatly augment the 

 amount of the crop, and make it of the best quality j but 

 it prepares the ground for another crop. If a summer 

 fallow be good for the land, here is a summer fallow ; if 

 the ploughing between turnips prepare the land for wheat, 

 the digging between cabbages and other crops will, of 

 course, prepare the land for succeeding crops. 



114. Watering plants, though so strongly recommended 

 in English Gardening books, and so much in practice, is 

 a thing of very doubtful utility in any case, and, in most 

 cases, of positive injury. A country often endures present 

 suffering from long drought j but, if even all the gar- 

 dens and all the fields could, in such a case, be watered 

 with a watering-pot, I much question whether it would 

 be beneficial even to the crops of the dry season itself. 

 It is not, observe, rain water that you can, one time out 

 of a thousand, water with. And, to nourish plants, the 

 water must be prepared in clouds and mists and dews. 

 Observe this. Besides, when rain comes, the earth is 

 prepared for it by that state of 'the air which precedes 

 rain, and which makes all things damp, and slackens and 

 loosens the earth, and disposes the roots and leaves for 

 the reception of the rain. To pour water, therefore, 

 upon plants, or upon the ground where they are growing, 

 or where seeds are sown, is never of much use, and is 

 generally mischievous j for, the air is dry $ the sun comes 

 immediately and bakes the ground, and vegetation is 

 checked, rather than advanced, by the operation. The 

 best protector against frequent drought is frequent dig' 

 ging ; or, in the fields, ploughing, and always deep. Hence 





