14 



THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 



[Chap. 



an acre, and the labourer to earn a dollar a day, 

 the cost of this operation will, of course, be forty 

 dollars ; v/hich, perhaps, would be twenty dollars 

 above the expense of the various ploughings and 

 harro wings, necessary in the other way ; but, the 

 difference in the value of the two operations is be- 

 yond all calculation. There is no point of greater 

 importance than this. Poor ground deeply moved 

 is preferable, in many cases, to rich ground with 

 shallow tillage ; and when the ground has been 

 deeply moved once^ it feels the benefit for ever 

 after. A garden is made to last for ages ; what, 

 then, in such a case, is the amount of twenty dol- 

 lars ? It is well known to all who have had experi= 

 ence on the subject, that of two plants of almost 

 any kind that stand for the space of three months 

 in top soil of the same quality, one being on ground 

 deeply moved, and the other on ground moved no 

 deeper than is usual, the former will exceed the lat- 

 ter one half in bulk. And, as to trees of all de- 

 scriptions, from the pear-tree down to the currant- 

 bush, the difference is so great, that there is room, 

 for no comparison. It is a notion with some per- 

 sons, that it is of no use to move the ground deeper 

 than the roots of the plant penetrate. But, in the 

 first place, the roots go much deeper than we gene- 

 rally suppose. When vre pull up a cabbage, for 

 .instance, we see no roots more than a foot long : 

 cut, if we were carefully to pursue the roots to 

 \\ie\\ utmost point, even as far as our eye would 

 assist us, we should find the roots a great deal 

 longer, and the extremities of the roots are much 

 too fine to be seen by the naked eye. Upon pulling 

 up a common turnip, who would imagine, that the 

 side, or horizontal roots, extend to several feet ? 

 Vet I have traced them to the length of four 



