STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 91 



exhanst the ground of all moisture, aa the deeply worked subsoil can hold its normal 

 supply by capillary and adhesive attraction— which experiment proves to be equal to 

 nearly one half the measure of the soil Itself — and a moderate evaporation is kept up 

 during the entire summer, which modifies the extreme heal and Bupplies necessary mois- 

 ture to plant growth, which ltoi-s mi with all the vigor of healthy life. The great quan- 

 tity of water essential to sustain the exhalation of plants when in growth, has been 

 ascertained by experiments In the case of many plants, as of wheat and clover, to be for 

 the growing season, two hundred times the dry weight of the plants themselves. This 

 for a good crop of clover would be about four hundred tons to the acre, or two gallons 

 per square foot, of water exhaled from the leaves while in growth. How apparent be- 

 comes the necessity of securing that condition of soil which will absorb and hold a 

 generou> supply of water to meet these immense drafts during the dry months of the 

 year. 



I think we shall find in this system a remedy in great part for our leaf blights and mil- 

 dews; for suspended growth in summer and long protracted, unhealthy growth in autumn ; 

 with great hope of relief from the terrible scourge of rot in peaches and grapes and some 

 possible amelioration of pear blight. 



Under these conditions of culture, our trees and vines, and other plants, will know 

 little of extremes of flood and drouth, of cold springs and hot summers, of the strangu- 

 lation from standing water, and of debilitation from a parched soil. 



Our early vegetables, and strawberries will be hastened many days in maturity — a 

 great gain for Southern Illinois cultivators in our competition with other localities. Our 

 strawberry crop particularly, will be sustained throughout a long bearing season, know- 

 ing no such thing as drouth. 



By the deep working, pulverization, and intermixture of the soil, and the carrying 

 away all excess of water, we not only enable the plant roots to reach an immense supply 

 of fertile elements already stored in the soil, but by the freer admission of air and the 

 more complete filtration of water through it, we carry important agents for the decom- 

 position and re-combination of those chemical elements which arc locked up beyond the 

 reach of vegetable affinities. The air and water both manure the soil. The ammonia is 

 ■ stimulant, and the oxygen and carbonic acid are powerful agents in disintegrating the 

 soil by chemical action, producing a combination of new elements, adapted to sustain 

 vegetable growth. 



A well trenched and underdraw d soil is evidently much more perfectly reached by the 

 rains. It may be said that our ground is completely saturated with water in the spring, 



i at other times, which is true, for a moderate depth of soil, but it is undeniable that 

 the great bulk of rain-fall runs oil' on and near the surface, rarely penetrating more than 

 a few inches; hence, an almost total loss, under our shallow system of culture, of the 

 great advantages of this perpetual and gratuitous manure supplying agency of nature 



It should be remarked here that Providence has given this section of our country a 

 more than average abundance of rain, which If properly husbanded by deep culture, 



will add an important amount of annual richness to the land, and will supply every sea- 

 s', n and stage of plant growth with necessary moisture ; while in fact we suffer every 

 year from droughts, always damaging and more or less excessive, our annual rainfall 



in Southern Illinois is about fifty inches, while the basin of the great lakes has l.ut thirty 



inches, New England about forty inches, and old England only about, half the amount 



we have. This water should be retained long enough In the soil to part with all its fcr- 



