158 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ July, 
be applied under such circumstances as to remain long enough with the 
plants for them to drink it up. Mr. McBey’s morning watering reminds 
me of wicked boys, bent upon mischief, taking stock out to drink. No sooner 
do the poor animals get their noses to the water, than whack goes the whip, 
or down comes the stick on their backs, and they have either to endure a 
cruel flogging, or go thirsty away. So it is with the plant watered in the 
morning. While it drinks it has to contend with the sunbeams, and before 
it has half slaked its burning thirst the water has all vanished. 
On the contrary, plants watered in the evening are like the stock that 
have free access to a clear running stream. They come, and go, and drink 
their fill, and the full-brimmed brook flows on for ever; and so the plant, 
watered at night, quietly drinks in the darkness and the silence all night 
long, filling up every nook and cranny of its structure with a draught so 
full and sweet that it might have satisfied the gods, until it sinks into 
slumber bathed in dew, and sweetly, silently rests till the morning. The 
loss of heat by evaporation gives it repose ; and this rest from active exer¬ 
tion, with the attendant strengthening cold bath, are the best possible 
preparations for a vigorous growth on the coming day. 
Another point of great moment in connection with evening waterings is, 
that any loss of heat that the plant sustains is made up to it by a more co¬ 
pious watering. Nightly evaporation secures the deposition of dew all over 
the surface of the plant. Daily evaporation only chills the plant, but invites 
no dew. Hence another great advantage of nightly waterings. The water is 
arrested as it flies away on the wings of the air, and is brought back to re 
water, and abide all night with the plants, by the ministry of cold; and thus 
the cold becomes a watering agency of great potency and ceaseless activity. 
And thus Nature teaches us by her nightly waterings of copious dews, 
by hiding up the sun beneath a thick curtain of clouds during and mostly 
after rains, the folly of day waterings during bright weather, and the wisdom 
of evening waterings at all seasons when there is no danger of an excess 
of cold. Evening waterings guard against a waste of water, give the plants 
time to consume it, are favourable to repose after the feverish excitement 
of scorching sunshine, and bring back the water that escapes suddenly and 
almost at once for reconsumption. The only drawback to all these advan¬ 
tages, as stated by Mr. McBey, is a loss of caloric; but it is extremely 
doubtful whether that loss is greatest by night or day waterings, and pretty 
w T ell certain that the loss during summer can very well be spared. It is more 
a good to be courted than an evil to be shunned; for during dry weather 
(and it is only then that out-of-door plants require to be watered), the great 
evil to be guarded against is, not a paucity of heat, but a scarcity of water. 
That evil, as I have shown, may be more easily met and more readily 
mastered by watering in the evening than in the morning. Such has 
