146 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



related and intermixed in all possible ways. In the 

 liberation and augmentation of the fertility of our 

 gardens, they were meant to work together almost 

 aljreast. Thus harnessed, and mutually supporting 

 each other, their emiching and ameliorating effects 

 are wellnigh inexhaustible. But separated, either 

 or both are comparatively weak. 



Now one of the greatest evils of stagnant water 

 in land, as has been already shown, is that it shuts 

 out the air. Hence water at rest and alone in 

 such lands has no power either to change or enrich 

 them. Give the water an exit through drains, and 

 the water becomes at once a real power in trans- 

 forming bad soil into good, and as the air follows 

 sharp at the heels of the moving water, the entire 

 mass is permeated by their presence. Neither do 

 they enter the earth empty-handed. The water 

 carries with it ammonia ; the air, carbonic acid, and 

 other manures ; and their presence dissolves, unlocks 

 all the sources of enrichment already existent in 

 the earth. Nor is this all, for the air and water 

 alike are also decomposed, absorbed, and are them- 

 selves assimilated into living plants, and transformed 

 into objects of utility or ornament. 



The effects of air and water in the earth cannot 

 be exaggerated. In undrained lands nothing is 

 more common than to see manm-e taken up as 

 fresh after being in the earth a year or more, as 

 when it was first applied. This simply shows that 

 it has done the land no good, however much its 

 qualities may have been deteriorated by its long 

 submersion. But let air, carbonic acid gas, and that 

 busybody oxygen, the great disintegrator of organic 

 matter, and water, have free access to the manure, and 

 then it is decomposed, changed as by the magician's 

 wand, and is henceforth fit to enrich the earth, 

 sustain its fertility, and augment and improve its 

 produce. Possibly the oxygen disappears in the 

 process. But no matter ; those drains running deep 

 and clear beneath the cultivated earth not only re- 

 move the surplus water, but fetch down as much 

 oxygen and other gases out of the air as are 

 needed. . 



Nor does the air do all this work for the earth for 

 nothing. The laws of compensation and mutual 

 service run like a golden chain through every field 

 and garden. The air, by thus adding to the fertility 

 of' the earth, increases its produce, and that produce 

 is 'the only means of preserving the purity of the 

 air intact, and its matchless constitution inviolate. 

 Even the temperatirre of the air is sensibly increased 

 by drainage. Its warming-pan, the earth, has its 

 temperature raised and made more uniform by drain- 

 age, and the heat which would otherwise have been 

 wasted in lifting sui'face water is also husbanded to 

 the amelioration and improvement of the atmosphere. 



Drainage Improves the Texture of Soils. 



—Texture is that peculiar mechanical disposition of 

 soil which separates its x^articles from one another, 

 and imparts to the best soils the quality that horti- 

 cultuiists prxze so highly — that of friability. All 

 undi^ained soils have a tendency to run together into 

 unfertile and comparatively useless masses of earth. 

 The water, by excluding the air, removes one of the 

 most powerfiil separating forces. The quality of 

 friabilit}^ may be added to in various ways, but the 

 first step towards creating and maintaining it ia the 

 soil is by di-ainage. Water in motion, by cutting 

 innumerable hair-like channels, imjDroves the texture 

 of soils, while the air that follows the water everj'- 

 where keeps all these open, and makes more by every 

 change of temperature. The friability of soils also 

 favours root-extension, and provides them with abun- 

 dance of food. They run further and fare better in 

 these than ia any other. Soils of good texture also 

 retain and provide more moisture when most needed 

 than any others. The soils that pass the water most 

 fi-eely through them, also lift up most by capillary 

 attraction dui-ing severe or protracted droughts ; so 

 that unless the porosity of soils is carried to excess, 

 the more friable they are, the more regular and 

 ample the supply of moistui-e. The subject of tex- 

 tui'e will be fui-ther adverted to in treating on the 

 amelioration of soils, and need not be further dwelt 

 upon here. Sufiice it to say that drainage is the 

 most potent means of improving the textui-e of soils, 

 and without it good friable mould is impossible. 



Drainage Deepens Soils. — ^The process may 

 be slow but certain, and, of coui'se, is greatly facili- 

 tated by deep digging and trenching. Still, apart 

 from these, the mere di-ainage of land will ultimately 

 deepen it almost to the level of the di-ains. The mere 

 separating and cleaving force of water is, in fa'ct, one 

 of the surest means of slow trenching, or deepening 

 the tnth of land : and the best propeilies of soil 

 being also the most soluble, of coui'se a modicum of 

 these is carried down by every rain-droj), and by 

 their gradual disposition and distri"bution the whole 

 of the permeable strata becomes ultimately assimi- 

 lative to the character of the best surface mould. 

 Thus the mere drainage of land carries forward 

 almost abreast the dual arts of deepening and emich- 

 ment of tilths. Where the water and air penetrate, 

 roots will surely follow ; and di'ainage not only opens 

 myriads of fi^esh root-runs through the soil, but also 

 replenishes them with plant-food for the use and 

 nourishment of plants. 



Finally, Perfect Drainage not only Ren- 

 ders the Cultivation of the Soil more -Easy 

 and Pleasant, but also more Profitable. — 



All this is obvious to all readers who have had 



