146 



GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



in time wash out all the fertility of the soil and leave it 

 sterile. This is the effect of heavy, beating storms, which 

 carry away more of fertility than they bring ; while if the 

 soil be stiff they puddle the surface, rendering it, when dry, 

 impervious, preventing the access of atmospheric air and 

 the moisture of the dew and of any gentle rains that fol- 

 low. 



Hence, in applying water, it should not be thrown upon 

 the soil with force from a coarsely perforated watering 

 pot, as its effects would be injurious in precisely the same 

 way as a washing rain. To tender plants and germinating 

 seeds it should be applied through a very fine rose. The 

 rose to a garden watering-pot should not permit a com- 

 mon pin to enter its perforations. For delicate seedlings 

 in pots it is better to give water by sprinkling gently from 

 a wetted brush, both the plants and the soil. For 

 larger plants in pots or in the ground, the leaves may be 

 sprinkled, unless too succulent, but the main supply of wa- 

 ter should be given by pouring it gently upon the sides 

 of the pot or upon the surface of the earth, and let it flow 

 gradually over and sink into the soil. 



It is not best, in general, to water close by the stems of 

 plants. The roots take up food only at their extremities, 

 and generally extend as far as the branches. Both the 

 roots and leaves of plants require water, and receive it in 

 natural watering. But the rains that fall upon a tree do not 

 fall upon its trunk, but roll off all around it, and drop pre- 

 cisely where the extending roots are ready to take it up. 

 Watering directly at the base of a plant, close to its stem 

 and collar, will be likely to rot or injure that vital part, and 

 small, delicate plants are pretty sure to damp off. Thus 

 applied, much of the water never reaches the absorbing 

 extremities of the root. As a plant increases in size, the 

 farther from the stem should the water be applied. 



Vines trained to verandas, or growing up under the 

 eaves of dwellings, often suffer from the want of water ap- 



