and ground surfaces. 41 



Drainage. 



The absolute necessity pf deep sub-soil drainage is known to 

 all intelligent agriculturists and gardeners; but' on the supposition 

 that among our readers are town-bred people who have not had 

 occasion to become well-informed in even the rudiments of horti- 

 culture, we will state broadly, that deep and thorough sub-soil 

 drainage is the most essential of all preparations for the growth of 

 trees and shrubs ; without which neither care nor surface enrich- 

 ment of the soil will develop their greatest beauty. Many valuable 

 shrubs cannot survive the winters of the middle States in imper- 

 fectly drained soils, which in those deeply drained and cultivated 

 are hardy and healthy. In Chapter XVIII, on the philosophy of 

 deep drainage and cultivation, and the treatment of half-hardy 

 trees and shrubs, to which, in this connection, the reader's atten- 

 tion is earnestly invited, the results of drainage are more fully 

 treated. The same causes which make the most thorough drain- 

 age of the soil a /r^-requisite to success in growing half-hardy 

 trees, act with equal efficiency to give fuller health and greater \'igor 

 to those which are hardy. The white oak may continue to grow, 

 in a slow and meagre way, in a soil filled during most of the year 

 with superfluous moisture ; but if that same soil were deeply and 

 ■completely drained the annual growth would be doubled, and the 

 increased abundance and finer color of the foliage becomes as 

 marked as the difference between an uncultivated and a well-tilled 

 field of corn. A lilac bush growing in a soil cold with constant 

 moisture a little below the surface, will develop only surface roots ; 

 and having no deep hold in the soil, its main stems will hang to one 

 side or another with a sort of inebriate weakness. But if, the soil 

 is dry, deep, and porous, when the plant is set out, the roots strike 

 down deep and strong, the stem will exhibit a sturdy vigor, and the 

 top a well-balanced, low-spreading luxuriance, never seen in cold 

 undrained soils. Even willows, much as they love a moist soil, are 

 much more healthy and symmetrical when planted in well-drained 

 than in wet places ; — their peculiarity being to flourish best where 

 their roots can find water by seeking it, as an animal goes to a 

 stream and stoops to drink, but not by standing in it perpetually. 



