July 11, 1872. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE, 



41 



concludes this latter portion by saying' — " My garden presents 

 a great variety of scenery compared with its limited extent ; 

 two spots separated by a few feet present views which differ 

 widely. The true principle in the construction of a garden is 

 to obtain the utmost possible effect by taking advantage of the 

 leading features of the landscape and the most striking natural 

 objects." 

 We shall continue the subject in our next. 



WATERING. 



If we are to accept as reliable the prognostications of the 

 meteorologically wise, the summer on which we have just 

 entered is to be characterised by periods of severe and protracted 

 droughts. The datum from which this conclusion is arrived 

 at is, the high mean temperature which has been registered 

 in February and March, and which was characteristic of the 

 same months of all the driest years from 1826 to the present 

 time. Should the same order of weather be realised this year, 

 the horticulturist, as heretofore, may expect that many of his 

 crops will languish and be comparatively useless, unless arti- 

 ficial watering be resorted to in order to counteract the bad 

 effects of long-continued drought. Therefore we make no 

 apology for calling attention to artificial watering, and directing 

 the inexperienced to the fact that watering may be either a great 

 evil or a great good, according as the operation is performed. 



There exist great differences of opinion as to the utility or 

 benefit of watering at all in time of drought, and we are not 

 at all at a loss to understand why this should be. Take, for in- 

 stance, two cultivators ; one applies mere paintings of water to 

 the surface of the soil morning and evening, and leaves the 

 surface to become hard and caked, and we are bound to be- 

 lieve that he finds his process do more harm than good. 

 Another, who more correctly understands what he is about, 

 gives regular drenchings, it may be only twice or thrice weekly, 

 plies his Dutch hoe among his crop to keep the surface loose, 

 and so prevent rapid evaporation ; and it is not difficult to 

 understand why he is in a position to assert the very contrary 

 to his neighbour, because he finds his crop luxuriate in defiance 

 of drought. Let us suppose a bed of Celery or any other mois- 

 ture-loving crop to have been planted out three weeks ago, 

 when it was perhaps moist and showery, and although it may 

 have struck root into the bed of manure under it, a severe 

 drought, we will suppose, sets in and continues ; under such cir- 

 cumstances let it be treated to mere surface-sprinklings once or 

 even twice in the twenty-four hours, and the soil between the 

 plants to remain otherwise unheeded, it gradually gets caked, and 

 cracks with the continued heat acting upon it. Let such treat- 

 ment and such weather continue, and it will be strange indeed 

 — especially if it be an early crop — if it does not by degrees get 

 wiry and stunted, and eventually run to seed, and the crop and 

 labour of watering are lost. On the other hand, let theamom.t 



Moonlight Scene (from Mr. Smee's Garden). 



The error into which the amateur and inexperienced fall in this 

 matter is that of constant mere surface waterings instead of 

 less frequent and thorough soakings. Water being the vehicle 

 through which food is conveyed to plants from the soil, and in 

 the atmosphere the preventive of excessive evaporation from 

 the foliage, it follows that,' to be attended with the desired 

 effects, it must be administered in quantity sufficient to satu- 

 rate the soil in which the roots are feeding much deeper down 

 than any mere sprinkling can reach . And as far as artificial 

 waterings can affect the state of the atmosphere, its power of 

 preventing evaporation must be very limited. Not only do 

 surface-sprinklings during seasons of heat and drought fail 

 in securing the end desired, but the system is a positive evil, 

 because, in the case of stiff soils particularly, the surface be- 

 comes hardened and caked, thereby rendering it a better heat- 

 conducting medium than when loose and porous, and as a con- 

 sequence evaporation is increased also. Waterings, to be of any 

 material benefit to plants, must be given in sufficient quantity 

 to reach their roots, and the fewer the waterings rendered ne- 

 cessary to keep up a state of growth the better in all respects. 



of water supplied be sufficient not only to wet the surface soil, 

 but to drench the manure down to the bottom of the trench, 

 say two or three times weekly, applying it in the evening, and 

 the following morning stir the surface of the bed, and spread a 

 thin layer of dry soil from the sides or tops of the ridges over 

 the surface of the bed among the plants. Watered after this 

 fashion, it will be found that Celery or any other moisture- 

 loving crop grows strongly, crisp, and of a dark green hue, and 

 forms fine large heads fit for the most fastidious salad-eater. 

 Nor does this latter process take much, if any, more labour 

 than is involved in daily mere surface-sprinklings which do 

 more harm than good. But why be so particular about keep- 

 ing the surface loose ? Just because a loose surface is abetter 

 non-conductor of heat than the open one, and the less heat 

 absorbed the less moisture evaporates. 



To some this may perhaps appear a trifling and unimportant 

 difference in performing one of the most common operations 

 of a garden in the summer months. It is not, however, so ; 

 for the difference we have pointed at involves the success or 

 non-success of rearing vegetables fit for table in a year of 



