142 



GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



Water is beneficial to plants as a vehicle for conveying 

 all soluble matters, which form the food of plants, whether 

 they be animal, vegetable, gaseous, or earthy. 



Other elements being present in sufficient quantity, the 

 growth and health of a plant will be more or less satisfac- 

 tory in proportion as it is or is not supplied with all the 

 water it can consume. The action of water is not, how- 

 ever, always beneficial. Injudiciously applied, it destroys 

 more plants than almost any other item of mismanage- 

 ment. In excess, it is always injurious. It fills the spa- 

 ces in the soil which would otherwise be filled with air, 

 and plants are choked and perish for want of this indis- 

 pensable element. A superabundance of water, for a time, 

 increases the growth of foliage and renders it tender and 

 succulent ; hence a good supply thereof is needful to plants, 

 the leaves of which are eaten, as lettuce and spinach. 



But by this excess the production of flowers and fruits 

 is delayed. The odor of the former and the flavor of the 

 latter are weakened and impaired. The size of the fruit is 

 increased by abundance of water, and without it the straw- 

 berry, for instance, will not swell; but the increased size, 

 unless it ripens in a bright atmosphere or the quantity of 

 water is diminished as the fruit ripens, is partly at the ex- 

 pense of flavor. Fruit is not only impaired in quality, but 

 is very liable to crack or burst from excess of moisture, as 

 the plum, grape, or stanwix nectarine often do, or rot upon 

 the tree while still immature, as the peach, plum, etc. 



An excess of water softens the tissues of plants, and 

 renders tbem much more liable to injury by frost. A frost 

 directly after warm and abundant rains, when plants are 

 full of sap, is much more fatal than the same temperature 

 in dry weather. 



The temperature of the soil, if wet, is greatly lowered, 

 and its capacity for heat diminishes. The constant evap- 

 oration from wet soil so lowers the temperature of the 

 adjacent stratum of air, that frosts occur when there are 



