January 4, 1883. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 3 
A way through darkness is unexpectedly made by us 
or for us, and so we go on. Do the right and things 
will always come right. It chiefly depends upon a man 
himself as to what he is—happy or unhappy, successful 
or unsuccessful. 
I will close with a few words of advice to all those 
who write, or read, or work—advice not unsuitable to 
those who understand a garden, by the one who under¬ 
stood human nature better than any other man, I mean 
Shakespeare. He says :—“ ’Tis in ourselves that we 
are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the 
which our wills are gardeners. So that if we plant 
Nettles or sowLettuce, set Hyssop and weed-up Thyme, 
supply it with one gender of herbs or distract it with 
many, either have it sterile with idleness or manured 
with industry—why, the power and corrigible authority 
of this lies in our trills.” 
So it ever is. Three hundred years about have 
passed since these words of sterling advice were written, 
but they are just as true now as they were then. Follow 
them, and the coming year will he a happy one in 
present and in retrospect. I wish all, now for the 
nineteenth time, a truly happy new year.— "Wiltshire 
Hector. 
DRAINING. 
This may be called a seasonable subject, for not only is 
winter the most suitable time for the operation to be performed, 
but when heavy rains come on the already soddened earth we 
can more readily discover where drains are imperatively needed 
than in summer. 
As the subject has been frequently treated of it will not be 
necessary to say anything about the mechanical operations of 
draining, as these are, or should be, understood by every gar¬ 
dener. It may be well, however, to note the advantages 
which accrue from the proper draining of wet soil. 
The first is that it materially raises the temperature of the 
soil. Soddened soil is always colder than dry soil, because 
what heat is absorbed by the soil is not employed in warming 
it, but in evaporating the water. Hence a wet soil retains 
its winter temperature long in spring after a dry soil has 
become warm and favourable for the growth of vegetation. 
Nay, even the winter temperature of wet soil is much lower 
than that of dry soil. This is an important point, as anyone 
can see if a moment’s thought is given to the subject. 
Not only does water when thus stagnant actually keep soil 
cold because of the heat being utilised in evaporating it, but 
the rain of summer, which further warms well-drained land 
as it passes through, has exactly the opposite effect on w r et 
undrained land, for in that case it does not pass through the 
soil, but only adds to the water requiring evaporation. Hence 
in wet seasons crops on wet undrained soil frequently fail to 
mature at all. 
Then draining, especially when liming is also practised, 
sweetens soil. Wet land is almost always sour and contains 
much matter that is hurtful to vegetation, but when the sur¬ 
plus water is run off by properly laid drains it carries much of 
this away. Then, as every heavy rain passes through the soil, 
it carries off more and more, till what was once a sour, cold, 
poisonous soil becomes sweet, warm, and fertile. 
Draining fertilises a wet soil. Whenever air is excluded 
from a soil by water, the decaying manure and other vege¬ 
tation form compounds hurtful to vegetation ; but when the 
water is run off air enters, and then very different compounds 
—compounds which nourish instead of destroying—are formed. 
Then, as every heavy rain displaces the air, so it is the cause 
of the air being renewed ; foi as the soil again rids itself of 
superfluous water fresh air fills the pores of the soil, and fresh 
oxygen finds out the matters only awaiting its presence to 
become plant-food. Then drainage makes soil easily worked. 
It is impossible to improve soils by cultivation while they 
remain soddened. To attempt it is to do mischief. But on 
this point we will not enlarge, nor will we do more than point 
to the fact that drainage materially improves the climate as 
well as the soil. 
These facts are well known, and need hardly have been 
repeated but for the fact that, though great pains are often 
taken to insure perfect drainage, no drainage results, and some 
of the benefits accruing from drainage, though very much 
needed, are never reaped. Drainage is only efficient when it 
is the means of carrying off water ; but when it does not do 
so is evident that the good looked for cannot result. In ordi¬ 
nary cases the drains have only to be properly laid to secure 
all the good results named above, because under ordinary cir¬ 
cumstances all the conditions necessary are present. In every 
garden, however, there are circumstances when all the con¬ 
ditions are not present. For instance, inside borders for Vines, 
Peach trees, Figs, &c., are invariably and rightly provided 
with drainage. It does not follow, however, that it serves its 
purpose, for it is doubtful if in any great number of instances 
water is applied in sufficient quantity to insure the draining. 
Very much of the water which falls on the land evaporates 
either directly or indirectly from the leaves of plants. Eva¬ 
poration inside fruit houses cannot be less than what takes 
place outside, and we should fancy it to be a good deal greater, 
while such broad-leaved plants as Vines are pump enormous 
amount of water from the soil. True, gardeners apply more 
water to inside borders than was usual only a few years ago, 
while the drying during the resting period usual once is 
no longer practised, still almost all are perfectly satisfied if 
they can make sure of their borders being fairly saturated. 
Thorough-going practitioners in some few instances, in order 
to “ make assurance doubly sure,” may give enough not only 
to secure all the benefits of plenty of moisture, but also the 
benefits of drainage. 
Our inside borders are, in almost all cases, heavity manured, 
in fact over-manured. For a time no great harm results, but 
in time the soil becomes overloaded, and those who can afford 
to do so renew the soil partially or wholly. Soils outside do 
not require such renewing, and it is an expensive process that 
few can afford. Care in manuring will help to stave off the 
evil day ; the periodical application of slight dressings of hot 
lime will do much to keep matters right ; but in order to 
maintain the borders in their fertility drainage — in other 
words, abundant application of water — is also necessary. 
Undoubtedly the great purifier of the soil is water. Injurious 
acids and salts are by its agency carried out of the soil into 
the drains and away, and nowhere are such to be found in 
such quantity as in over-manured undrained soils. Indeed it 
is not necessary that the compounds formed should be in them¬ 
selves hurtful. Nitrate of lime or potash are manures of the 
greatest value when applied in moderate quantities, but when 
they accumulate in over-manured soils that are not drained 
they become positively destructive. Outside the weather- 
clerk takes care that such shall not happen if we only lay the 
pipes. In fact, outside such manurings are not given as are 
applied inside, and our object should, in the former instance, 
be how to guard against their loss. Inside we should take 
care that they do not accumulate and destroy.— Single- 
handed. 
MUSCAT OF ALEXANDRIA GRAPES. 
I THANK “ Vitis ” for his kindly criticism on my note about the 
Knowsley Muscats on page 494, last volume. I did not intend to 
convey the idea that the success of these Muscats was due to 
their roots being in the sand under the flags at the back of the 
house. It would have been better perhaps if I had made the 
sentence finishing on the second line from the top read thus, 
*• The flags were resting upon sand which, with the exception of 
those found in the newly formed border, were crowded with nearly 
all the feeding roots the Vines possessed.” 
I may add the Vines in question were planted in the spring of 
1873, and were what is commonly called small “ planting canes.” 
In order to get them in without loss of time a trench the length 
of the two houses, and about a yard wide, was excavated along 
the front of the old border. This trench was filled with the best 
loam Mr. Harrison could obtain at the time, the usual sprinkling 
of bones, lime rubbish, and some wood ashes. Afterwards the 
whole border, new and old, received annually a small mulching of 
