TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 561 



drained one tract or farm lie can drain any other by the same plan, 

 yet the principles are the same for all; it is only the application of these 

 that varies. 



The profits to be derived from drainage of fertile lands are of two 

 kinds: First, an increased yield of grases, grains or fruits which have a 

 direct money value to the producer. Second, the increased healthfulness 

 of the community where drainage has reclaimed all of the waste lands. 

 The latter has a money value which is difficult to measure. The following 

 example clearly illustrates both of the above statements: The Indiana 

 Bureau of Statistics made an investigation of the influence of tile drain- 

 age on health and crops, selecting a single township where drainage was 

 one of the marked improvements. Taking a period of five years before 

 drainage began and five years after most of the township had been tile 

 drained, it was found that the average yield of wheat in the five years 

 before drainage was 9% bushels per acre. This same land after drainage 

 for five consecutive years produced an average of 19i/^. bushels per acre. 

 The average yield of corn in the first five years was 31% bushels per 

 acre. In five years after drainage the average yield was liVz bushels 

 per acre. By consulting the doctors it was found that there were 1,480 

 cases of malarial diseases during the first five years, and only 490 cases 

 during the second five years. With such facts before us it will require 

 no argument to convince the average citizen that drainage has greatly 

 increased the health and wealth of that community, and thereby added 

 materially to the prosperity of the state. 



The soil, one of the essentials to the existence and wellbeing of the 

 human race, is one of the most complex products of nature. With all the 

 acquirements of which man can boast, he cannot create a pound of 

 soil, understand the intricacies of its composition, nor yet avail himself 

 fully of the wealth locked up within this most familiar of all natural 

 objects. 



Nature has apparentiy brought out the choicest selections from her 

 storehouse and placed thfm at the service of man in the form commonly 

 known as soil. Its varieties are unnumbered; its capabilities are un- 

 measured and its adaptability to supply the wants of man only partially 

 understood. 



Soil, in general terms, is the surface stratum of the earth, that is culti- 

 vated and which produce vegetable growth. 



The subsoil is the stratum of earth upon which the soil rests. The 

 dividing line is not clearly marked as a rule, so that the terms are usually 

 understood to apply respectively to the depth of surface land that may be 

 cultivated, and the layer immediately below. 



With respect to drainage we may speak of them as open or retentive, 

 the terms expressing, not their power of retaining water, but the readiness 

 or rapidity with which water moves among the particles when a means of 

 drainage is offered. 



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