THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



and inoistiu'e, being burnt up in dry scorching weather 

 during summer, and drowned in winter and wet springs. 

 In many cases, however, they have a sufficiency of bottom 

 water to keep the subsoil wet all the year round, the deep 

 roots of the grasses in such cases being contintially in an 

 excess of water and deficieucy of aii*. 



A large area of this Idnd of pastiu'e and grass land has 

 been drained, and much good done thereby towards its 

 improvement. There is no denying this, as the facts of 

 the case are manifest to all who have any experience in 

 the matter; for the land is not only drier, but producing 

 a finer quality of grasses for cattle. 



The mere drainage of such land is, however, but a slow 

 process of aeration at the best, while in very many cases 

 it is wholly inadequpte to meet the exigencies of the case. 

 We know, for example, grass land drained upwards of 

 twenty years ago, three, four, and five feet deep, where 

 rashes are still growing over the tops of the di-ains, and 

 where the sour bent-grasses generally predominate, form- 

 ing a thick matted sward of coarse grass, which cattle, 

 sheep, and deer mU not eat, until it gets the winter frost, 

 when it slowly disappears. In other places rushes cease 

 to grow over the drains, but luxuriate between them. In 

 a third example, rushes cease to grow altogether, but the 

 coarse grasses continue in possession of the land. We 

 might thus go on quoting innumerable examples where a 

 period of twenty years has produced vei-y little effect to- 

 wards the proper aeration of such lands. 



We might also commence at the opposite extreme from 

 the above, where di'ainage produces the greatest eflects 

 upon such grass lands, when it iviU be found that the pro- 

 cess of aeration is also slow, and that, whenever the soil 

 approaches to a certain degree of stiffness or tenacity , the 

 work even at the expiry of twenty years is very imperfectly 

 performed. 



The reason why the process of aeration is thus so slow 

 and imperfect by draining, is manifestly this — drainage is 

 not aeration. This rationale may be somewhat brief, and 

 perhaps pertinent, but it comprises the simple facts of the 

 case, and we fear it is by inattention to this simple train 

 of facts that so much diversity of opinion is expressed 

 relative to advantages gained by draining grass lands, and 

 that so much disappointment is experienced by some, 

 when they do not realize results equal to those of their 

 neighbours. 



What, then, are the effects produced upon such lands by 

 drainage ? What does aeration effect ? And what is the 

 upshot in the absence of both drainage and aeration? 



In the former of the above extremes there was a bottom 

 supply of water, that kept the rushes growing. We have 

 seen a spring burst up only about a yard from the di-ain — 

 the water to flow over upon the surface to the drain, and 

 then disappear. In another case the strong gaiilt clay 

 prevented the water from rising, as above, in a flowing 

 stream ; but the roots of the rushes went down to a depth 

 sufficient to obtain' the requisite supply of water. In 

 another ease, where there was no bottom water rising and 

 no rashes, the land was sour ; and in wet seasons, like the 

 past, it was soaking wet all the year round, while in dry 

 scorching seasons it was rent into fissures deeper than the 

 drains, the soil being baked or consolidated into bricks, 

 instead of being aerated. Our space will not permit us 

 following up the details of so comprehensive a question as 

 those involved in the one before us ; but the reader wiU 

 readily perceive that the effect produced by drainage in 

 this case is not aeration, but the reverse— the exclusion of 



both air and moistui'e, comparatively speaking : two ele- 

 ments essentially necessary to the fertUization of the soil 

 and the consequent growth of fine grasses. 



In the other extreme, where drainage produces the 

 greatest eflect, the land is naturally more porous — full of 

 vegetable matter, so that it is less liable to consolidation 

 and scorching in summer; while in autumn, winter, and 

 spring it is in a more healthy state, suftering less from 

 evaporation, and the removal of heat thereby from the sur- 

 face. It is also less subject to the rising of sour water 

 from the bottom ; so that the work of improvement gradu- 

 ally progresses as the roots of the grasses fill up the new 

 fissures annually made by the summer sun. 



The proper aeration of grass land is a compound ques- 

 tion, involving not only the free circulation of air, but also 

 night dews, and the like ; besides the retention of mois- 

 ture, and even the manufacture of water and ammonia 

 within the soU. It is, in other words, the conversion of 

 the soil into a laboratoiy, so as to enable Nature to pro- 

 duce a certain train of chemical processes necessary to the 

 growth of the finest grasses ; and, consequently, essentially 

 necessary to the profitable husbandry of such lands. To 

 expect such conditions from the mere drainage of the vast 

 majority of such lands would be the height of credulous 

 absurdity, for they must be thoroughly loosened and dis- 

 integi'ated before the desired effect is, or can be produced. 



It also ought to be borne in mind, in the investigation 

 of both these classes of examples, that drains do not re- 

 move water from grass-lands diuing the principal period of 

 the grass-gi'owing season, tmless in exceptionally wet wea- 

 ther-. From them, at such seasons, water is removed by 

 evaporation, and along with it heat ; and both these restilts 

 we wish to avoid. We wish to retain, for example, both 

 the water and the heat ; and this is the result obtained by 

 the proper lessening and disintegration or mechanical sxib- 

 division of the land. The removal of those coarse grasses 

 that send down their roots to a great depth, in search of 

 water and acidulous food, and that bring up the same to 

 the staple soil by capillary action through the instrumen- 

 tality of decaying roots, is also necessai-y. 



Where such grass lands are neither drained nor aerated 

 the tale may be soon told, as, during that season of the 

 year when water is not required, they are both cold and 

 wet in the extreme. When they begin to require moisture 

 for vegetation, evaporation carries off the heat ; so that 

 vegetation is next to nil, so far as good grasses go. And 

 when this evaporation ceases, then there is no moisture in 

 the soil, but a scorching excess of heat ; so that, instead 

 of vegetation, we have a burning brick kiln ! 



A large area of this inferior grass land contains an ex- 

 cess of effete vegetable matter. In some cases this arises 

 from imperfect drainage and aeration, as already noticed; 

 in others, from a want of mineral element, as lime, &c., &c. ; 

 while in not a few cases it arises from the joint action of 

 both these causes — a deficiency of air and certain mineral 

 elements to produce a healthy decomposition of waste 

 vegetable matter, and supply of food for the fine grasses. 

 In examples of this kind, the remedy is too manifest to 

 require notice, after the malady has been ascertained. 

 Nothing can be more injudicious or v/astefuUy prodigal 

 than to pare and bum such gi-ass lands in order to get lid 

 of the excess of eftete vegetable matter when healthy 

 decomposition takes place, as when such lands are 

 trenched up to a proper depth, there is not then too much 

 vegetable matter in them, but the contrary iii the vast ma- 

 jority of cases. 



