Drainage. 



By ALFRED J. BURROWS, Pi.uckley, Kent. 



The subject of drainage has already been incidentally alluded to in 

 these pages, but more especially in its connection with and applica- 

 tion to woodlands. The whole question is, however, one of such 

 vital importance to the landowner, the forester, the gardener, and the 

 agriculturist, that a few remarks upon it may not be unacceptable 

 to the readers of the Journal of Forestry. 



Though the geological formation of any particular district may 

 aiford some general data for the arrangement of a system of drainage, 

 the practical man will be guided more by the results of his own 

 observations of the state of the land itself, as shown by its vegetation 

 and the crops it yields. 



The primary objects of all drainage operations should be to lessen 

 the cost of cultivation, and at the same time to increase the yield of 

 land in respect to both quantity and quality. 



The amelioration of climate, and the increased healthiness of a 

 district thoroughly drained, are by no means unimportant factors in a 

 calculation of the economical advantages of the system. 



Among the many evils resulting from a superabundance of stagnant 

 water in the soil may be enumerated the following : — 



1. The extra cost of cultivation, and the increased difficulty — 

 amounting in very wet seasons to an impossibility — of obtaining a 

 proper seed-bed for the reception of nursery stock, or of farm and 

 garden seeds. From the exclusion of heat and air much of the seed 

 put into wet soils does not germinate. 



2. The lateness of the harvest upon corn lands, and the uncertainty 

 as to the maturing of new growths of wood, whereby they are often 

 unable to stand the severity of winter or the frosts of spring. 



3. The slow decay and consequent inactivity of manures applied to 

 the land, much of the virtue of which is washed out of the soil and 

 wasted instead of being appropriated by vegetation. 



4. The coldness of the soil, caused by nearly all the sun's heat 

 being expended in evaporating water, and by the exclusion of warm 

 air and the warm spring and summer showers. 



5. The production upon pasture land of inferior grasses, containing 

 Jittle nutriment for sheep and cattle, and yielding poor crops of 



