342 On the Advantages of irrigating Garden Grounds, $c. 



would not only be able generally to command more abundant crops, 

 but, by possessing exclusive advantages, he would often, in unfavour- 

 able seasons, be enabled to raise abundant crops of articles, which 

 in such seasons, usually take a very high price. In selecting the 

 site of a garden the advantage of irrigating it, by the means above- 

 mentioned, may very frequently be obtained ; and the number of 

 gardens, above which a small tank or pond might be easily made, 

 is probably much greater than at a first view will be supposed. 



It may be objected that excess of rain is more often injurious 

 in the climate of England than drought ; but in wet seasons plants 

 suffer owing to want of light, and generally of warmth ; and I feel 

 confident that if the same quantity of rain, which the soil receives 

 in our wettest summer, were to fall only between the hours of nine 

 in the evening and three in the following morning, and the sun were 

 to shine brightly and warmly through the whole of the days, no in- 

 jurious effects would follow ; and every experienced gardener knows 

 with what luxuriance and rapidity plants of every species grow in 

 hot and bright weather, after the ground has been drenched with 

 water by thunder storms. 



