HOCKINGS' GARDEN MANUAL. 



3 



save by using the subsoil plough, and draining their 

 land. Many are aware of this fact, but are deterred 

 from giving their knowledge any practical effect 

 because of the expense. This idea of expense is 

 greatly exaggerated, and what is considered economy, 

 is, in reality, the most wasteful extravagance in time 

 and money. Let any farmer calculate the cost of 

 cultivating the land on which year after year he loses 

 his crops, either through drought or too much wet, 

 and he will find that, without counting the value of 

 the crops he has lost, he will have paid for merely 

 working the land (from which he has had no return) 

 sufficient money to have subsoiled and drained it. He 

 therefore cannot plead that he " can't afford it," for he 

 has been expending a similar amount of labor and 

 money, only to reap disappointment. 



The limited space at our command will not suf- 

 fice to do justice to either of the subjects treated of, 

 and the object aimed at, therefore, is not so much to 

 convince the reader, as to arrest his attention, that he 

 may seek more information and then bring his know- 

 ledge into practice. 



Some cultivators think that it is not only super- 

 fluous, but improper to drain land here, because it is 

 a hot, dry climate, and we are subject to long 

 droughts. But it has been proved by long experi- 

 ence that drained land retains its moisture longer 

 than swampy land ; for the latter shrinks and 

 hardens as the wet dries off, gets parched and cracks ; 

 while the former — being light and friable — admits the 

 damp vapour to rise through it almost as fast as it 

 dries from the surface. For similar reasons wet land 

 is unfit for vegetation either in wet or dry weather ; 

 for during rain the roots are standing in water and 

 are smothered, so that the plant either turns yellow 

 or perishes ; and in drought it strives in vain to push 

 its roots through the parched, unhealthy mass in search 

 of moisture it was not able to retain. 



