Drainage in New York. 



241 



many years and they have frequently been rendered ineffective by the 

 burrowing of animals and from other causes. 



There is also much less feeling of the need of underdrainage on high 

 rolling lands than on the low flat clay lands or marshy lands. An excess 

 of water does not persist at the surface for so long a time as on the other 

 classes of soil and therefore its effects are not so readily apparent. There 

 is also the feeling that any land which has a strong surface slope cannot 

 be in need of underdrainage since the surface drainage is entirely adequate. 

 This idea should be carefully examined before acceptance. Very fre- 

 quently it is entirely wrong. A very much larger part of such hilly land 

 would be benefited by drainage than is generally believed. 



The land in- 

 cluded in this 

 division occurs 

 in both the sec- 

 ond and third 

 group of the 

 State. It may, 

 however, be di- 

 vided into two 

 phases. These 

 are, first, the 

 1 o \v , rolling 

 areas of stony 

 loam to clay 

 loam soil south 

 of Lake On- 

 tario as far as 



the latitude of Geneva or a little beyond and through the ]\Iohawk val- 

 ley. Also the upland soils in the Hudson valley and the northern part 

 of Long Island. These generally have a subsoil of variable texture and 

 structure. Sometimes it is gravelly and sandy, but often it is a dense 

 stony or gravelly loam quite impervious to water. In such cases drain- 

 age is needed. In this phase of soil conditions, drainage is not as fre- 

 quently needed as in the second phase of soil conditions. 



The second phase includes all of the high, plateau soils of a rolling 

 or hilly topography and comprises practically all of the second group in 

 which the soil conditions are divided. Here the \"olusia series of soil 

 predominates. Their surface conforms closely to the surface of the under- 

 lying rock. The subsoil is usually fine textured, but stony and rather 

 compact and impervious. This condition is increasingly true toward the 

 southern part of the State on the Volusia silt loam. The soil, to a depth 

 of from 12 to 18 inches, is generally loose and fairly friable but below 



C/aj' soil being plozi'cd in eight step lands. The 

 " dead furrovjs " serve as surface drains. 



