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XLII. On the Advantages of irrigating Garden Grounds by means 

 of Tanks or Ponds. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. F. R. S. 

 President. 



Read August 7, 1832. 



The quantity of water which may be given with advantage to 

 plants of almost every kind, during warm and bright weather, is, I 

 believe, very much greater than any gardener, who has not seen 

 the result, will be inclined to suppose possible ; and it is greater 

 than I myself could have believed upon any other evidence than 

 that of actual experience. 



My garden, in common with many others, is supplied with water 

 by springs, which rise in a more elevated situation; and this circum- 

 stance afforded me the means of making a small pond, from which 

 I can cause the water to flow out over every part of my garden 

 whenever I wish. I am thus enabled to irrigate my strawberry 

 beds whilst in flower, and my Alpine strawberry beds, and plants of 

 every other kind, through every part of the summer ; and I cause a 

 stream to flow down the rows of celery and along the rows of bro- 

 coli, and other plants, which are planted out in summer, with very 

 great advantage. But the most extensive and beneficial use which 

 I make of the power to irrigate my garden by the means above 

 mentioned, is, in supplying my late crops of peas abundantly with 

 water; by which the ill effects of mildew are almost wholly pre- 

 vented ; and my table is most abundantly supplied with very ex- 

 cellent peas through the month of October ; as I have stated in a 

 former communication. Several of my friends, who have caused 

 large quantities of water to be carried, have obtained abundant 

 crops late in the autumn of the variety of pea, which bears my 



