THE EXPERIMENT STATION. 133 



This is not a cheerful picture. How far tile draining has'contributed to 

 such results demands thoughtful consideration. I cannot speak from per- 

 sonal knowledge of the conditions relating to soil water in the States named, 

 but an intimate acquaintance with the country around the Michigan State 

 Agricultural College for twenty-five years, during which time a large amount 

 of tile drains have been laid and many swamps ditched, enables me to say 

 that no such depression of the well water level has taken place in my neigh- 

 borhood, and that the well water level has remained essentially the same 

 during the whole period. I have not been able to learn of any such marked 

 lowering of the water table in other portions of our State. 



Ex-Governor Porter, of Indiana, in addressing the American Public Health 

 Association in 1882, said: "It gives me pleasure also to say that the prac- 

 tice of underdraining the soil has in this State been found so greatly to 

 increase its productiveness that, in proportion to the area of the State, it 

 is said we have more underdrained soil than any of the States. Under- 

 drainage has everywhere been followed by a great lessening of sickness; and 

 intermittent fever, once so common, has become so rare that it is a good 

 deal less prevalent than in some of the oldest States." 



The general proposition that tile draining increases flood and aggravates 

 drought, demands careful consideration. 



Flood. 



The common time of special danger from flood in the level States at the 

 north is when the accumulated snows of winter rapidly thaw, especially 

 with warm rain, and while the ground is still frozen and thus impervious to 

 the accumulating water. The depth of frozen soil varies widely in the same 

 neighborhood. On the 18th of February, 1888, when the ground was, for 

 the most part, covered with snow which was rapidly melting, I explored the 

 soil by boring with a long-shanked auger to determine how deeply the soil 

 remained frozen. The passage from frozen to free soil was almost as marked 

 as when boring through a plank. In a porous sandy soil which had been 

 covered with snow all winter, and was still covered with two inches of snow, 

 the ground was frozen 19 inches; in a clay soil nearby, which had been 

 blown bare of snow repeatedly and was still uncovered, the frozen soil was 24 

 inches deep; in a sheltered garden where 10 inches of snow still remained, 

 the frozen soil was 8 inches ; in a forest where snow was not drifted by the 

 wind, and the covering of snow and forest leaves remained undisturbed, the 

 frost line averaged 2 inches, while in an open field in the lee of the forest 

 the frost line extended 15 inches. These measurements were all taken the 

 same day. 



When the surface soil is impervious to water it is manifestly a matter of 

 indifference, so far as water is concerned, whether the subsoil is tiled or not. 

 The surface water cannot reach the tile drain, and no flood flow of water can 

 come from such tile drains. Yet we find our worst floods with a frozen sur- 

 face soil. The water can only flow over the surface, and with a deforested 

 country there is little to obstruct such flow, and the danger of flood is great. 



But in the warmer seasons of the year we occasionally have very heavy 

 rainfalls and disastrous floods as the result. Do. tile drains increase these 

 floods ? 



