172 



ANNUAL REPORT OP THE 



Off. Doc. 



Figure 9 is another illustration of the 

 flocculating effect of lime on fine soils. Its 

 chemical efr'ect in sweetening sour lands is al- 

 ready well known to the farmers of the State, 

 and it has other chemical effects already pub- 

 lished by the State College in oflScial bul- 

 letins. 



DRAINAGE. 



Fig. 9. 



The value of tile drains is to remove the surface or gravity water 

 from the surface two or three feet, so that air may freely penetrate 

 where the soil has a tendency to form a ground water level near 

 than three feet to the surface. It has a further use in letting the 

 trapi>ed air escape when the rain falls faster than the films can 

 remove it down into the soil by simply thickening it. When the 

 spaces are water-logged for two or three inches, the trapped air 

 is compressed, and this compressed air hinders the gravity flow 

 into the subsoil, and forces washing at the surface. If, however, 

 there are drain tiles, the compressed air is forced into these, and 

 the water follows, thus relieving the surface clogging and lessening 

 the surface washing. 



In presenting this subject, you have discovered that I offer no 

 easier way to get a certain amount of product from the soil. The 

 product is more the result of so much labor, rather than the yield 

 of so many bushels per acre. We need a new way of expressing 

 the results obtained, wiiich should be so many bushels or pounds 

 per unit of energy, intelligently exerted, rather than so much per 

 acre. One of our oldest axioms is still one of our newest, that "Man 

 must earn his bread by the sweat of his brow." 



NATURAL AGENCIES IN SOIL IMPROVEMENT. 



BtProf. E. B. Voorhees, New Jersey Experiment Station, ISTew Brunswick, JV. J. 



The question of soil fertility is one of the first importance. It 

 measures in large degree the size and quality of the crops that 

 grow. Seasons may change, climates may be different, but in any 

 case fertility is the one thing that more than any other controls the 

 harvest. It is but natural, therefore, with the growing knowlegde 

 that we have of the soil in its various phases, that its study should 

 occupy our minds more completely than any other one subject con- 

 nected with farming. Other lines of investigation contributory 

 to the uplift of farming have their best application only when 

 fertility is the basis. It is quite natural, too. that until we under- 

 stand the soil more fully that the methods of practice adopted are 



