114 



the field. Tiles make the best drains, though drainage is often affected 

 by subterranean channels made of stone or even logs and brush. Low 

 lands lying on creeks or rivers should have the drainage tiles placed in 

 lines perpendicular to the general course of the stream. It must be 

 understood that these drains shall have an inclination sufificiently great to 

 carry ofiF the water to the outlet. Nor should there be any low depres- 

 sions in the drain where water will stand and stagnate. 



If the soil is neither very wet nor very dry in its character it will not 

 be necessary to go to the expense of underdraining to secure good 

 meadows. Select a low lying situation on a stream if possible. If this 

 cannot be done take an upland valley in which the silt from the surround- 

 ing acclivities may be gently deposited from time to time upon the grass. 

 The surrounding hills must not be so high nor so abrupt as to cause 

 large quantities of silty material to be deposited at once. The deposit 

 should be just sufficient to cover the base of the grass but not enough to 

 cover the crowns. In the latter case much of the grass will perish; in 

 the former the silty material will act as a fertilizer and as a mulch for the 

 retention of moisture. Grass must have plenty of water but it must not. 

 be in excess. Nothing is more hurtful to a meadow than standing water, 

 for after it retires many vacant spots will be seen. Argillaceous soils are 

 often so compact as to prevent a healthy growth. In very loose soils the 

 roots of grasses frequently sufifer for want of moisture. In the selection 

 of lands for either meadows or pastures the depth of the underlying rocky 

 strata must be taken into consideration. If the underlying rocks come 

 near the surface the grass will parch up during a dry season. The 

 united depth of the soil and subsoil should be not less than four feet, and 

 the subsoil should be a retentive clay capable of conserving moisture. 



The soil best adapted to the growth of the leading meadow grasses is 

 a calcareous loam with clay enough in its composition to give it a con- 

 siderable degree of adhesiveness, and that will hold the grasses firmly, but 

 not enough to give the soil so much compactness as to prevent it from 

 being aerated and the roots from penetrating to a good depth. The soil 

 must be neither too compact nor too porous. When too porous the 

 manure applied to the meadow sinks too rapidly to a plane beneath the 

 feeding depth of the roots. If too compact the roots are not able to go 

 deep enough to secure the proper moisture; nor can the fertilizing mate- 

 rial sink deep enough to be within the plane of moisture. 



Some sandy soils make excellent meadows, especially when resting 

 upon a clayey subsoil which retains moisture. Strong clay soils with a 

 large admixture of sandy material in the form of chert, or of calcareous 

 matter in the form of limestone gravel, make good meadows in proper 

 situations. It is not unusual to find little strips of bottom lands lying on 

 mountain streams in which the soil is largely composed of silty deposits 

 with about an equal proportion of humus, sand and clay. Such meadows 

 are very productive both of timothy and herd's grass hay. River bottom 

 lands having black soils, which are iial)le to crack into deep fissures with 

 the advent of hot weather, however fertile they may be, are unfit for 

 meadows. Nor are those lands suitable for meadows that are liable to 

 have a thick slimy deposit of vegetable matter left on them after over- 



