10 GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



of the soil, as to the grading off the surface soil, or 

 to filling up to the desired grade with the material 

 thrown out in excavating the cellars, or other subsoil, 

 clay, or gravelly material, and placing these over the 

 soil intended for the garden. This is often done for 

 the convenience of contractors, to the great injury of the 

 proprietor, without either being aware of the bad results. 

 As a good soil will tend more than all else to give satis- 

 factory results in garden operations, it is all important to 

 secure it. When discretion can be used in deciding on a 

 location, one should be chosen that has naturally a suit- 

 able soil, rather than to attempt to make it so by carting 

 a foot of good soil over the bad, which would be found 

 not only very expensive, but, in many situations, next to 

 impracticable. I have before said, in some of my writ- 

 ings on this subject, that the soil best suited for all gar- 

 den purposes is what is known as " sandy loam," not 

 less than ten inches deep, with a subsoil of sand or 

 gravel. Such a soil rarely requires drainage, is easily 

 worked, and gives better results than that known as 

 "clayey loam," with a putty-like subsoil of blue or 

 yellow clay, which must be drained thoroughly before 

 a seed is sown or a plant set out, or there will be no 

 satisfactory reward for the labor. 



CHAPTER II. 

 DRAINAGE. 



As drainage will be in many instances indispensable to 

 success, I will briefly state a few of the simplest methods 

 that may be adopted, premising that it is utterly useless 

 to expect to cultivate any soil satisfactorily that does not 

 freely and rapidly carry off the surface water. An expert 



