i82o The Cornell Reading-Courses 



light of the results of modern investigation into the causes of soil 

 fertility. 



To the minds of some persons, land is well drained if its surface has 

 a good slope. Land on the surface of which water does not stand during 

 most of the crop season, may seem well drained. Continued saturation 

 during the winter or protracted periods of subsoil saturation in the summer 

 does not seem particularly objectionable to such minds. 



On the other hand, the fact is that land that is intermittently wet 

 for two or three days at a time is the cause of much greater loss to the 

 farmer than land that is flooded the year round and is commonly known 

 as swampy. Such land is let alone and not used for farming purposes 

 until it is at least partially drained. On the other class of land, that 

 which is intermittently wet, any attempt that is made to use it for tilled 

 crops entails a loss of labor, seed, and fertilizers that cuts deeply into 

 profits. 



EXTENT OF SWAMP LAND IN NEW YORK STATE 



There are about twenty-five hundred square miles of swamp land 

 in New York State. This is distributed in many scattered areas, large 

 and small, found in nearly every part of the State. Some of it is tidal 

 salt marsh around New York City and on Long Island, but the greater 

 part is in the northern parts of the State. Of this area about eight hundred 

 square miles is composed of muck soil, and it is in this kind of land in 

 particular that financial interests are concerned. Nearly all the soil 

 in areas not classed as muck is dark in color, due to the accumulation 

 of organic matter, and this soil will usually produce good crops when 

 it is drained. 



LAND THAT IS PERIODICALLY WET 



The real agricultural drainage problem, however, has to do with those 

 large areas of land which are now used for farming purposes but which 

 are too wet to give good crop yields. It is the land that is springy and 

 seepy; the land where fruit trees are missing, singly or in blocks; the 

 land where com is weak and patchy; the land where the wheat freezes 

 out; and the land where the grass is supplanted by plantain in large, 

 blotchy areas. A large part of the tilled area of the State falls within 

 this class in that it needs more or less drainage. A careful study of soil 

 types in several counties shows the proportion of such land to range 

 from 43 per cent in Dutchess County to nearly 60 per cent in Niagara 

 County and over 80 per cent in Livingston County. This does not mean 

 that all this area needs systematic drainage, but rather that a consider- 

 able amount of drainage is needed in order to prevent needless waste 

 and in order to increase net returns. 



