DRAINAGE. 129 



in the form of an impervious stratum. This stratum may be horizontal, or nearly so, and 

 the water may follow it out to the surface of a lower level, and thus the swale is formed, a 

 permanent nuisance in an otherwise valuable tract of land. In such cases a partial drainage 

 of the lands will entirely remedy this evil. In the United States, the average amount of 

 rain -fall is about three inches per month, and frequently an inch of rain, which is equal to 

 a little more than three hundred and sixty hogsheads of water, falls upon an acre of land 

 in a single shower. The question arises, &quot;What becomes of all this water? It must either 

 be disposed of by sinking into the soil, by evaporation, or it remains upon the surface. 

 Moist land conduces to good cultivation, but not wet lands; therefore, if the soil or subsoil is 

 of such a nature that this water does not percolate through it readily, and leave it in good 

 condition, drainage is the only remedy for the evil. &quot;When the land is very level, admitting 

 of no surface draining, and the soil retentive and clayey, drainage will be required for any 

 improvement in the conditions. 



Swamps and peat-beds frequently occur in a hilly country. Sometimes their origin is 

 in numerous springs from adjoining hills; when this is the case, often a ditch dug around 

 the entire outer edge of it, where it meets the ascending land, will cut off the water supply, 

 and generally remedy the evil; but open ditches are very objectionable for many reasons, 

 and tiles are preferred. It is stated that Mr. John Johnston, of Geneva, New York, who was 

 the first farmer to use tiles for draining in this country, once drained a quagmire so that it 

 produced eighty bushels of corn per acre, and in that case the cost of draining was paid by 

 the increase of one crop. The draining of lakes and marshes requires great capital, and 

 engineering skill, and is sure to become a very important branch of agricultural improve 

 ment in our Southern and Western States. 



The reclaiming of the Everglades of Florida by draining Lake Okeechobee sufficiently to 

 prevent its overflow, is an instance of what may be accomplished by this means. This may be 

 done by a canal ten miles long, connecting Lake Okeechobee with the headwaters of the Caloo- 

 sahatchie River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, the mouth of which is twenty-three and 

 a half feet lower than the lake. It is the overflow of the lake which causes the Everglades 

 to be submerged in water, the lake having no natural outlet, while the Everglades are sur 

 rounded by a limestone ridge which acts as a dam to the water, and after the overflow of the 

 lake, it can only be reduced by evaporation, which, being so slow a process, keeps the ground 

 almost constantly under water. Should the above drainage not prove sufficient to prevent the 

 over-flow and .render the lands reclaimed suited to agricultural purposes, another canal to the 

 eastward, cut to the St. Lucie River, twelve miles long, which will carry the water into the 

 Atlantic Ocean, will remedy the evil, the mouth of the St. Lucie River being twenty- 

 five feet lower than the basin of Lake Okeechobee. In Holland, steam-pumps, wind -mills, 

 and tide-gates are used extensively in drainage, the great Haarlemer-meer being not only 

 drained, but is kept so, by steam-power. Prof. Pendleton states that much of the hilly land 

 in some of the best farming portions of the Southern States has become impoverished by 

 unskillful culture and by continual washings of soil and fertilizing materials which have been 

 swept into the valleys, that are now so saturated with water as to be unfit for proper tillage, 

 and that in this way many valuable lands have been lost to cultivation, and rendered 

 unhealthy by engendering malarial fevers, etc. 



By a judicious system of drainage, these lands may become among the most productive, 

 as well as profitable, of any in that section of the country. Prof. Cleveland, of Chicago, 

 says: &quot;The necessity of drainage is not to be determined by the quantity of water which 

 falls or flows upon the surface, nor upon the power of the sun to carry it off by evaporation, 

 but upon the character of the subsoil. If that is of sand or gravel, the water will pass off 

 below by natural drainage, but if the subsoil is clay or other impervious substances, the 

 water is checked in its downward course, and remains stagnant or bursts out upon the 



