82 Gardening 
method of treatment one should write to the agricultural 
college of his state. 
It is well to lay out a garden that is inclined to be 
wet in beds rather than in rows for level culture (page 
93). 
How to tell if a soil is poorly drained. To determine 
whether a plot is too wet for garden purposes, sink a 
hole in the earth with a spade. If free water runs 
into the hole and stands within 18 inches of the surface, 
the soil is poorly drained. In such a soil, water will 
often stand close to the surface or even on the surface 
after heavy rains. In early spring this condition may 
do no damage except to delay planting, but if with ordi- 
nary rainfall the soil is watersoaked in midsummer, 
drainage is necessary. The roots of garden crops need 
to go down deeply into the soil, but they cannot thrive 
below the level of the free water, which may happen to 
be near the surface. 
In draining a garden, it should be borne in mind that a 
ditch will remove the free water only when it leads to 
lower levels, and also that it will remove water only to 
the level of the bottom of the ditch. 
Increasing capillary water in the soil. By tillage and 
by adding vegetable matter, the gardener can greatly in- 
crease the power of the soil to furnish water to the grow- 
ing crops. A coarse-grained and lumpy soil does not 
hold much water. It dries out quickly after a rain, and 
capillary water does not rise into it from lower levels in 
abundance or with uniformity because of the large and 
irregular air spaces between the lumps. Good tillage 
makes such soils more finely granular, so that they can 
