EDITOK'S T.VBLE. 



Horace Gueelf-y's Address before the Indiana State AoRiciLTrRAL Society. — "Wo 

 liftvc not in man}- a year read au Address of Ibis kind with so uuicli interest as wo Lavo 

 tliis. The main points arc : 



Economy of Means ; 



Necessity and Importance of Science ; 



Draining, Deep Plowing, and Irrigation ; 



"What the Sister Arts Teach as to 7i.GRici'LTrRE. 



Tliese topics arc all discussed in such a manner as to show that Mr. Greeley is avcII 

 informed respecting the condition of American agriculture, and his illustrations arc so 

 fresh and forcible that they can not fail to awaken an impulse toward improvement in every 

 one who has heard or read them. If our space permitted wc should gladly transfer the 

 entire paper to our pages, but we must content ourselves with a few extracts, which arc no 

 less applicable to agriculture than to horticulture. 



" Deep Plowinff, Draining, and Irrigation. — The three main featuresof agricultural advancement 

 ninong the Anglo-Saxon race are: 1. Deep Plowing, cr Suhsoiling ; 2. Draining; 3. Irrigation- 

 I am quite aware that draining should take precedence in the order of time, yet I believe, in 

 point of fact, deep plowing has led to draining by demonstrating its necessity, and not draining 

 to deep plowing. We suffer immensely from drouth iu this country. Probably the aggre- 

 gate annual loss from drouth alone throughout the Union decidedly exceeds, taking one year 

 with another, the entire cost of our Federal Government. Yet wc know that the roots of 

 most plants will descend to moisture, no matter how dry the surface, if the earth beneath them 

 i ' porous, mellow, and inviting. Hence we realize the immense importance of deep plowing ; 

 and after doubling our teams and sinking our deepest plows to the beam, we summon to our aid 

 the subsoil implement, and go down a depth beyond that of any single furrow. But we soon 

 find that the pulverization of the subsoil, thus attained, lias no permanent effect ; that the water 

 tliat leaches down to it settles it into a compact, solid mass, wliich the roots can nut perforate 

 and all our subsoilLng needs t^ be done over again. The remedy that readily suggests itself is 

 the freeing of the subsoil from water by drains sunk below it — say three to six rods apart — and 

 filled half way up with pebble?, with flat stones forming a sort of culvert, or, still better, laid 

 with draining tile or hollow brick, placed end to end, and forming a continuous channel from the 

 highest part of any slope or grade to the brook which drains it. And now the subsoil, supposing 

 t'le drains well made and the drainageway sufficient, is readily freed from any water settling into 

 it, and long retains the porous and permeable character communicated to it by deep plowing. 



Of course, this does not exhaust the good effects of draining. The subsoil, thus loosened and 

 freed from excessive moisture, becomes a source of food as well as drink to plants growing above it • 

 for that it is capable of feeding plants, no one, who has observed the rank vegetation growing out 

 of the earth thrown up by draining or digging, can doubt. Instead of being like a s'org'i in 

 wet weather, and like a brick in dry, the subsoil retains sufficient moisture to cheer the plants, 

 but too little to indurate itself. And the mean temperature of the soil, hitherto lowered by the 

 constant evaporation of the water contained in the subsoil, is raised several degrees by the sun's 

 rays, no longer counteracted by the evaporating process — at least, not to any such extent as 

 before — so that the plants grow more luxuriantly, mature more rapidly, and so are earlier out of 

 danger from frost And beside this, the constant passage of currents of air through that portion 

 of the drain not occupied by water — and each drain should have an opening at its liead as well 

 as at its mouth — is an additional source of fertility through the chemical combination it insures. 

 It would be difficult to overstate the value, the importance, the profit of draining. 



"Many are accustomed to say, 'This land needs no draining,' meaning that it is not habitually 

 wet. But draining proves as useful, if not as imperatively necessary, on dry soil as on 

 dry lands it is required that the subsoil, once broken up and pulverised, shall not. 



