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THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 1 , 1857. 
of art, in perfect unison with nature, in the shape of a system 
of cultivation, which, in connection with agriculture, may 
possibly be already familiar to many of your readers; it is 
the new mode of “ subsoil irrigation,” by means of which the 
great labour attached to watering gardens may be almost 
entirely dispensed with. 
All Englishmen interested in flower-gardening, from Mr. 
Beaton downwards, must have felt an unpleasant amount of 
solicitude with respect to the welfare of their bedding plants 
during the parching drought of the past summer; and in three 
or four very extensive establislnnents with which I am ac¬ 
quainted, together with numbers of other large places, the 
expense for labour incurred in watering bedding plants alone, 
if fairly calculated, would completely astonish the uninitiated. 
Flower gardens, which will compel then’ conductors to employ 
during a dry season from ten to a score of men for a fortnight 
or three weeks at a time in watering by hand, must necessarily 
produce flowers in about the same style that a plaintiff pro¬ 
cures a verdict in Chancery, i.e ., by a strong appeal to the 
l. s. d. principle. And if all gardeners do not buy their plants 
so dear, which I allow is not the case, perhaps from local 
advantages or other causes, still does the gardener exist who 
can aver that his plants have never suffered more or less 
severely from lack of moisture during dry seasons, or that 
other important work has not been retarded, or perhaps irre¬ 
trievably neglected, because all liis force was of necessity en¬ 
gaged in preserving his scarcely-rooted bedding plants from 
perishing of thirst. And, moreover, this water-pot warfare 
in a large establishment, where the life or death of ten or 
twelve thousand plants is concerned, as the most ignorant 
may conjecture, is no mean engagement. Now, our opinion 
of a man’s intellectual abilities would not be increased upon 
seeing him engaged with a flint for an hour in attempting to 
produce a light in a damp tinder-box, when the same 
effect might be produced by a common lucifer match in 
one second. And to toil for days upon a labour that might 
be accomplished in a few hours, argues, assuredly, a like 
conclusion. 
A truce to argument, however. The system advocated, as 
before remarked, is no utopian project, as those who have 
seen it in operation can testify ; and in our opinion it only 
needs to be more generally known to become more generally 
adopted. Hitherto, we believe, it has been almost exclusively 
applied to kitchen gardening, and with the most satisfactory 
results; but the same system is equally applicable to the 
flower garden as to the culinary department. 
In the formation of beds on this system, it will be necessary 
in the first place to “ dig out the earth from one to two feet 
deep, so as to be able to form a bottom nearly water-tight, 
with sides about four feet six inches high, to prevent the 
liquid from running over until the earth has been moistened 
by it. The bottom may be -6f clay and chalk, or gravel, or 
lime, or any hard substance rammed; and upon the bottom 
put one row of half-drain tiles in the centre (that is to say, in 
the centre of beds tlrree feet in width; or, if six feet, two rows) . 
and loose, not jointed. There is an admission pipe sloping 
at one end to each rank of drain tiles, and a pipe at the other 
end of the bed to see when the liquid stands at four inches, 
and then to stop. The earth is then filled in as before, and 
proceeded with as in ordinary gardening. Water, or liquid 
manure, on being poured into the pipes, will pass along 
the whole length of the beds ; and rising through the small 
spaces between the drain-pipes, partly by the capillary at¬ 
traction of the mould, and partly by the attractive power of 
the roots themselves, will feed and nourish the plants.” So 
writes Mr. Wilkinson, the able promulgator of this new system 
of cultivation, in his pamphlet on subsoil irrigation ; and that 
it does nourish and greatly increase the size and produce of 
| roots, vegetables, &c., is an undeniable fact; and that it may 
j be applied with equal advantage to the flower garden is suffi¬ 
ciently obvious. 
Three years ago I became the advocate of this system in a 
contemporary, relative to reclaiming some extensive tracts of 
wild forest land in the south; and after a silence of two years, 
with a more full conviction of its merits, I now feel prompted 
to recommend it strongly to the attention of all those 
who possess any attaclnnent to flower gardening, or de¬ 
sire to see it advance in accordance with the progress and 
improvement, manifested by that conquest of mind over matter, 
which marks the advance of every other science or profession 
of our age. And I have now said enough, I believe, to render 
it sufficiently apparent, that by adopting this system the flower 
gardener may water his beds more effectually in a third of 
the time and at half the expense to 'which he could ever hope to 
attain upon the old system of watering by hand. And if any 
person doubt the ability of water to run up hill, i.e., the 
principle spoken of as “ capillary attraction,” let him prove 
the truth of the assertion by resorting to the well-known 
experiment of placing water in tumbler, wine glass, or any 
other vessel; and then let him apply one end of a dry piece 
of loaf sugar to the surface of the water (to represent the dry 
soil above the pipes), and he will then have the satisfaction of 
seeing water mount up-hill, and in an instant feel the upper 
end of the piece held in his hand as moist as that immersed 
in the liquid. 
One thing I have not alluded to, as I considered it 
would be hardly necessary in small flower-beds; and that is, 
a pipe might be laid in connection with the above to some 
main drain in a pathway to drain the beds dry at any 
tune; or, as Mr. Wilkinson states, “ a cock or plug at the end 
of each series of troughs or pipes will draw off the supply when 
desired, and admit the atmosphere, which is beneficial to 
roots.” And, in conclusion, we have but one trifling obstacle 
in our road to prevent even the most bigoted professors of 
water-pot practice from adopting it. The system is patented 
by the gentleman whose name it bears ; but the cost of adopt¬ 
ing it is, I believe, a mere trifle in comparison with the benefits 
to be derived from its application, particularly in large esta¬ 
blishments.—J. H. 0., Hamilton Place , Sydenham. 
EXTRACTS FROM MY POCKET-BOOR. 
The past summer, on the whole, has been a very productive 
one, at least in this county (Suffolk). Splendid crops of 
gram and herbage have been harvested by the farmer; and 
finer crops of fruit could not be wished for by the gardener. 
Housekeepers, I should think, have had a “ good benefit ” in 
the shape of preserving : and what a great blessing from our 
beneficent Creator, to have such a bountiful supply of “ such 
good things ” stowed away for old Winter, w r hich is close 
upon us! 
Vegetables have been good, with the exception of Cauli - 
Jloivers , which have been bad indeed. Not one has been cut 
here since the handglass crops fit to send to a nobleman’s 
table. 
Bedding plants, considering the hot summer, have done 
w r ell, with the exception of Calceolarias and Lobelias; the 
former were very moderate. The Lobelia ramosoides flowered 
most beautifully until the latter end of August; and by the 
middle of September every plant was dead. We shall be 
sorry to lose entirely such a little gem as this used to be. I 
am informed by Mr. Foggo (the very intelligent gardener at 
Shrubland Park), that the L. speciosa is taking the same 
course. 
I should be glad if one of your numerous correspondents 
could inform us of the cause of this disaster. 
The mildness of the present autumn is something very re- j 
markable. Heliotropes , Fuchsias, Cupheas , and some other 
things, including the Alonsoa Warscemczii are in “ full 
feather.” Other kinds of bedding plants are perfect masses of 
green ; and Dwarf Kidney Beans were gathered here this day 
(Nov. 17), fit for table. 
The wheat crops are in a very forward state in this locality. 
I was informed a few days ago by Mr. Anness (one of the 
largest and best practical farmers in this county), that wheat 
■which that gentleman had planted on his farm in 1845, was ! 
twelve weeks before the blade made its appearance above j 
ground, and this year it was up in ten days; showing that 
the ground must be, comparatively speaking, like a hot-bed. 
—John Perkins, Thornham Hall Gardens. 
