SOILS 73 



hoe, or sprinkled with manure from a pepper-box, 

 but thoroughly drained, and dug, and dunged. I am 

 not theorising, nor playing the game of speculation 

 with my readers — not writing from a fertile soil, 

 regardless of the difficulties of others, like the Irish 

 absentee who, dating from his cosy club in London, 

 thus addressed his agent in a dangerous, disaffected 

 district : — ^ Don't let them think that, by shooting you, 

 they will at all intimidate me ; ' but I have proved 

 that which I preach in practice. Upon two soils as 

 different from each other as soils can be, though only 

 separated by a narrow stream, I have grown Roses 

 which have won the premier prizes at our chief ^ All 

 England ' shows. On one side of the brook the 

 ground is naturally a strong, red, tenacious clay ; on 

 the other, a very light, weak, porous loam, with a 

 soft, marly subsoil. 



The first thing to do with a cold adhesive clay is 

 to drain it, and to drain it well. When water stag- 

 nates around the roots of a plant, they cannot receive 

 the air or the warmth which are alike essential to 

 their health — nay, life. Cut your drains with a good 

 fall, straight, and four feet deep ; and do not forget, 

 when you have made them, to look from time to 

 time, in seasons of wet, whether or no they are doing 

 their duty. Use tile, not fagots, which soon, in most 

 cases, become non-conductors. 



