June 26, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
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Richmond Show. 
West Kent Show, Chislehurst. 
3rd Sunday after Trinity. 
National Rose Society, Kensington ; 
Royal Botanic Society’s Evening 
[Exhibition ; Stoke Bishop Show. 
Edinburgh International Forestry 
FOte; Hull Show (three days); 
[Wimbledon, and Cardiff Shows 
THE USE AND ABUSE OF THE WATERING POT. 
OW-A-DAYS, wlien so much is written by able 
cultivators on every conceivable subject con¬ 
nected with gardening, if a person waits until he 
can write on something new the probability is 
that he will never write at all. It is quite clear, 
however, that this is no valid excuse for silence, 
as abundant evidence is afforded on every hand 
that the old and essential routine practices are 
not thoroughly understood by all; nor is it likely 
they ever will be, since the young and inexperienced are 
always with us, and will be to the end of the chapter. 
It may appear a somewhat strange, not to say bold, 
statement to make, that there are numbers of young gar¬ 
deners in charge of good gardens at the present time who do 
not know how to dig. They do not even know where to 
begin nor how to finish a piece of land, while in such simple 
work as raking and mowing they betray their incapacity the 
moment they attempt to use the implements, and provoke 
the smiles of old practitioners. There is some excuse for 
this, as persons who are in many other matters competent 
have not had experience in outdoor duties. There is need, 
then, for plain teaching on plain subjects, and it is the more 
desirable to recognise this when it is remembered that the 
plainest of operations are the most important, and amongst 
the plainest of the plain is watering. 
Although some excuse is conceded to a young gardener 
who may not be able to use the commonest of tools, the 
spade, rake, scythe, edging shears in a workmanlike manner, 
the same indulgence cannot be granted him for the mistakes 
he makes in watering, for he has been either using or abusing 
the watering pot day by day for years. During that time he 
has either endeavoured to make himself proficient by close 
and intelligent observation and attentive care, or he has 
gone on dabbling in a haphazard manner, and never quite 
sure whether he has been doing right or wrong; nor is he 
sure now. 
There are numbers of such men engaged in gardens, to 
the great discomfort of the responsible gardener under whom 
they serve—that is, if he is a skilful cultivator and conse 
quently an expert in the work in question ; for no man can 
be either a competent grower of plants or fruit who is not 
first competent in the most important of all duties pertaining 
to that end—watering. 
A young man who has made himself capable in the use 
of the watering pot, and can be trusted implicitly to exercise 
sound judgment and make few or no mistakes, is prized by 
his superior whose time is occupied in other duties, which he 
can discharge without any misgivings when he feels he is so 
well supported; but a slap-dash hit-and-miss kind of man, 
who gives too much water in winter and too little in summer, 
and who cannot or does not discriminate between the require¬ 
ments of plants recently potted and those long established 
and crowding the pots with roots, is a hinderer rather than 
a helper—the cause of much anxiety, an impediment in the 
way of smooth working, an obstructor of success. 
No. 209.—Vol. YIII., Third Series. 
To be a good gardener a man must first train himself to 
the use, and not allow himself to indulge in the abuse of the 
watering pot. He must cultivate his perceptive faculties, 
and be able to judge accurately and quickly as to the real 
condition of a plant, and act accordingly. If water is needed 
it should be given promptly and sufficiently, if not needed it 
should be withheld until it is. There is no safe intermediate 
course. It is a great and far too common error to suppose 
that a plant may not be dry enough to be well watered, but 
sufficiently so to be half watered, hence a little is given to 
moisten the surface in the way of a compromise. This is a 
dangerous practice, and the more so since the person who 
commences it is exceedingly liable to continue until the 
habit is so firmly fixed that it is difficult to abandon and 
adopt a sounder and a better course. This slipshod manner 
of watering is the forerunner of half the failures in gardening, 
the origin of insects innumerable which instinctively attack 
enervated growths ; it is the cause of nine-tenths of the 
failures by plants damping off, of half the cankering that 
occurs in the stems of Melons or Cucumbers, of multitudes 
of fruit not setting and swelling, of shoals of blossom buds 
falling—in fact, the abuse of the watering pot is the root of 
the majority of the evils and annoyances that occur in the 
career of the gardener. 
Frequently, indeed much too frequently, there is no room 
for doubt as to whether a plant needs watering or not. Its 
flagging leaves and drooping flowers proclaim alike its 
urgent want and the neglect of some individual whose duty 
it was to have prevented such a collapse. The man who 
cannot foresee the requirements of plants, but waits the 
expression of their suffering—flaccidly hanging leaves—can 
never be a good cultivator, and plants that are subjected to 
that exhaustive treatment can never flourish, and the only 
thing thriving about them will be insects. And another 
thing, when plants are subjected to that negligent system of 
treatment, more time is occupied in keeping them in even a 
half-presentable state, and more water is used than if they 
are supplied in anticipation of their urgent need ; for in the 
one case the water runs out of the soil nearly as fast as it is 
poured in, and the signal of distress, withering foliage, is 
seen again in an hour in hot weather. Plants thus managed 
or mismanaged may be watered four times a day and not be 
satisfied, while those properly treated by never being allowed 
to be actually dry will be well and sufficiently supported by 
two applications. There is no exaggeration here ; the case 
is, in fact, understated, as all who are capable of judging 
correctly know full well. If it is an abuse of the watering 
pot to act on what may be termed the suffering principle, 
that involves both waste of water and waste of time, it would 
be interesting to know what it is. Nor does the abuse end 
in those two wastes, for there is a third—a direct and imme¬ 
diate waste of the virtues of the soil, which are positively 
washed away instead of being retained for the sustenance of 
the plants. The best loam may be purchased at a guinea or 
more a load, and all other ingredients for mixing with it 
may be of the best; the compost may be blended in the best 
possible manner, so as to contain exactly what may be 
needed for the sustenance of the plant, but the abuse of the 
watering pot will spoil all. A person competent in the use 
of the watering pot will produce far better results with 
inferior soil than will another who is incompetent yet having 
the best soil in the world at his disposal. This is no ima¬ 
ginative theory, but simple sober fact. 
There are times, as all know who have had much experi¬ 
ence in plant and fruit culture, when thought and discrimina¬ 
tion are needed on the subject of watering. A plant may be 
neither exactly dry nor decidedly wet at the usual time when 
water is given. In such a case a moment’s reflection is 
needed. If the plant has only been shifted for a few days 
it may be wise to pass it; if it is established and the pot 
crowded with roots it would be wise to water it. Plants in 
that intermediary state as to root-mcisture may also Jbo 
No. 1865.— Yol. LXX., Old Series. 
