208 
TI1E CULTIVATOR. 
July. 
Draining is beneficial to the farmer and gar-dener, 
also, in that it relieves the ground of surplus water 
during the cold season, from November to April. Every 
farmer knows that his wheat and grass are injured by 
standing water at this time of the year. The freezing 
and thawing of water about the roots of these crops, 
tend to heave them out of the ground, and when the 
winter is over, the soil which has lain charged with 
water is left in a cold, sour state, which the balmiest 
summer succeeding cannot fully restore to a warm and 
healthy condition. The orchardist on such land finds 
his young trees either killed outright or badly stunted 
and moss grown. His peaches, grapes, and other choice 
fruits, if they live, do nothing more. But when the 
ground is well drained, wheat passes through the win¬ 
ter safely—unless too much exposed to the winds—and 
grass lands retain their smooth surface, free from sor¬ 
rel and mosses, and fruit and ornamental trees and 
vines, otherwise tender, come out in spring unscathed. 
Draining renders the ground more porous at all sea¬ 
sons of the year, and enables the roots of trees and 
plants to descend deeper into the earth, and so to find 
more nourishment. In lands undrained, only a few in¬ 
ches of the top soil are light and dry. The subsoil 
being habitually wet, the particles adhere firmly to¬ 
gether, like tough mortar, rendering it almost impos¬ 
sible for the roots to penetrate them. And if they 
could do so, of what benefit would it be 1 They would 
find not only few of the elements of growth, but also 
many elements noxious to vegetable life. In dry 
weather, too, soils of this description bake, and crack 
open in large fissures, allowing the heat to penetrate 
among the roots of trees and plants. On the other 
hand, in properly drained ground, the water leaches 
through the soil and subsoil into the drains, leaving be¬ 
hind it a thousand minute pores or channels throughout 
its whole extent, and making it comparatively friable, 
light and warm. The cold, stagnant water having 
been abstracted from the bottom soil, and that soil ren¬ 
dered porous by the process, roots of trees and plants 
push into it at once, and find there a wide field for for¬ 
age. It is an annexation of new territory, over which 
they rejoice to spread themselves. Defiance, now, to 
the dog-start The roots are not confined to a few in¬ 
ches of surface-soil: their mouths are down near to the 
nether springs. The drains carried off the excess of 
water in the wet season, but by rendering the subsoil 
porous, the moisture more easily rises again to the sur¬ 
face when it is wanted, in the dry season. This is one 
of the most beautiful and important results of drain¬ 
ing. Contrary to the fears of some, draining is bene¬ 
ficial to land in time of drouth, hardly less than in the 
wet season. Paradoxical as it may at first seem, the 
best way to prevent land from becoming too dry, is to 
drain it! This benefit will undoubtedly be the more 
apparent, if the draining is accompanied with thorough 
subsoiling or trenching, yet it will be obvious without 
it. 
Draining also facilitates the work of enriching land. 
Manure applied to the surface, instead of being wash¬ 
ed off by the rains and lost, is carried downward, and 
its juices incorporated with the soil. Yet it is not car¬ 
ried beyond the reach of the plants—it seldom, if ever, 
descends three feet—nor is it borne away through the 
drains. The increased benefit which land so treated 
derives from the atmosphere and from the rains and 
dews, is worthy of much consideration. The soil is in 
the best state for imbibing and retaining the fertilizing 
gases with which the air may at any time be charged. 
The benefit to the health of the inhabitants, arising 
from the draining of land, is a matter of great impor¬ 
tance. But upon this, as well as some other points, we 
cannot now dwell. The late Mr. Downing’s recipe for 
successful gardening, was : trench, trench , tkench ! 
A recipe for success in all agricultural operations, 
should begin with, drain, drain , dkain ! A. d. ©. 
One of the Things Essential to a Good Crop. 
There is one of the conditions indispensably requisite 
for securing large and remunerative crops, which is 
not unfrequently either forgotten or neglected, and 
which may be now called to the remembrance of some 
or brought to the knowledge of others with some pros¬ 
pect of advantage, as it is only during the early stages 
ot vegetation that the farmer or gardener can avail 
himself of it. We refer to the giving of every possible 
aid and assistance to the growth of plants in their ear¬ 
liest stages. This aid may be given in several ways— 
some before sowing or planting, by duly manuring and 
fitting the soil, and some, with which only we have now 
to do, during the first days or weeks of vegetation. 
The chief of these latter, consist in keeping down 
weeds, stirring the soil and keeping it loose, and apply¬ 
ing fertilizing dressings either in a dry or liquid con¬ 
dition. 
Mere statements or assertions of the beneficial in¬ 
fluence of these things in giving to plants an early and 
a vigorous start, and in preventing their becoming so 
sickly and stunted that they never wholly recover from 
that condition, are likely to have much less effect upon 
those not already convinced and well aware of such in¬ 
fluence, than the observation of the contrast between a 
few well cultivated and a few neglected plants of any 
kind would be. Let any one who wishes to ascertain 
how much such aids to healthy and vigorous growth, in 
the early stages of the life of plants, contributes to 
largeness, early maturity, and even the quality of a 
crop, take two contiguous patches of carrots, corn, or 
any other hoe-crop on farm or garden, and observe 
carefully the contrast until they are harvested, between 
those plants which have had, especially in the earlier 
stages of their growth, all the aid and assistance which 
thorough weeding, frequent stirring of the soil, and a 
judicious application of fertilizing dressings, either dry 
or liquid, can be made to yield, and those which have 
been more or less neglected in all these particulars. In 
addition to this, a portion of the plants neglected in 
their earlier stages—say until the weeds have got the 
start of the plants, or until the surface of the soil has 
become pretty well crusted—may be taken, some week 
or two after the well cultivated patch has received all 
due attentions, and then receive the care and culture 
which those duly cared for have had ten or fifteen days 
previously, and the contrast throughout their whole 
growth will very certainly convince any observer that 
no subsequent care or labor, however great, will ever 
make amends for the early neglect. 
The observation of the contrasts which such an ex¬ 
periment would present might do more, in the way of 
producing a thorough and an operative persuasion of 
the beneficial effects of careful culture in the earlier 
stages of the growth of plants, than any mere asser¬ 
tions or statements from us or any one else. Let those 
then, not yet thoroughly convinced, try some such ex¬ 
periment, and thus learn how essential to good crops is 
a due care of them in their youth or earlier stages 
