244 THE FLORIST AND 
made in the earlier part of this essay, on the subject of the water-table. 
To borrow the language of honest Walter Blith, already quoted, " I am 
forced to use repetitions of some things, because of the suitablenesse of the 
things to which they are applyed." It has been shown that deep drains, 
pretty near each other, remove any excess of moisture which the soil con- 
tains over and above the natural water of attraction to a point so low that 
it is neither within reach of the heat of the surface to give rise to evapora- 
tion, nor can it, by contact, chill the roots of plants in their downward 
tendency. 
The more porous the whole soil can be made between the drains, the 
easier will water find its way into them. It cannot have escaped the atten- 
tion of the observing farmer, that the subsoil, which he is justly anxious to 
disturb by deep plowing, is merely adventitious — that is, of no natural exist- 
ence save as it has been produced by shallow plowing. In such cases, it is 
merely a stratum of earth rather more compact than the soil just above it, 
and having a light and porous soil beneath it. In proof of this, it may be 
stated that on subsoiled land, the roots of plants, which, previous to such 
deep culture, would have been arrested just below the surface, are often 
found reaching very much deeper than the plow itself has penetrated. Yet 
this stratum of earth, thin though it may be, will sometimes hold water, as 
it were on a shelf, which when broken up, allows it to settle into the drains 
by its own gravity. 
It is this principal which forms the close connection between draining and 
subsoil plowing. Both processes we have seen, are ancient, yet, until they 
were associated as a system, neither attracted a tithe of the attention which 
we now bestow upon them, simply because as separate processes neither was 
of any extraordinary value. We may show the close connection between 
draining and subsoil plowing, perhaps, by a plain illustration. 
Take a common kneading trough and fill it half full of closely packed 
clay, and complete the entire filling above it with moist sand. Then, with 
an auger or other boring instrument, perforate the whole by an aperture 
extending both through the clay and the bottom of the trough, so that water, 
poured on the sand over the opening, will run directly through. This is the 
condition of a drained but not a subsoiled land. Now with a watering pot 
sprinkle over the whole surface of the sand, at the top, several quarts of 
water. It is plain that what falls nearly over the opening in the clay, will 
pass out at the bottom, but the larger proportion remote from the opening, 
will be held by the bed of clay. If, however, before the sprinkling with 
water, you had, with a strong stick, broken up the clay at the bottom, a 
