296 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



I have heard farmers regret that they had drained their clay lands, be- 

 cause they crack and become dure, still I scarcely ever knew weather so 

 hot as entirely to exhaust the clay, which has a great affinity for moisture, 

 of its water, and have generally noticed that the grain crops and grass on 

 such land, was flourishing when that on lighter lands was burned up. 



It will be well to remember that all bodies on the surface of the earth 

 radiate rays of heat in perfectly straight lines, warm bodies to cold bodies j 

 and the whole surface is eternally casting rays into space through the at- 

 mosphere, both striving for an equilibrium of heat. Different substances 

 on the earth radiate heat with different degrees of rapidity, and those 

 which become cool first, attract the falling dew first. Thus you may ob- 

 serve in summer, your pastures will be perfectly wet, while your gravelled 

 road will be dry, and your thoroughly drained field will delight the falling 

 dew, which will only expend its superfluity upon the undrained clod. Who 

 can contemplate with indifi"erence the unbounded munificence of the Great 

 Impartial. 



Let two adjoining fields be wet in diff"erent degrees, that which is wettest 

 will, invariably give off the largest quantity of moisture, and will, conse- 

 quently, be the coldest. When spring arrives it will warm and prepare 

 the one for cultivation by the heating rays of the sun, while the other will 

 swallow them up, and cause them to re-ascend in the form of vapor. The 

 remedy for this state of things is effectual drainage. 



Soil has great capillary power, as may be instanced by pouring water on 

 the soil of a flower pot, which the earth gradually absorbs until the sur- 

 face becomes moist. The same operation is constantly performed in your 

 open fields. The water from beneath is drawn to the surface, and where it 

 is present in large quantities, the capillary action keeps the top moist, and 

 consequently cold. This tendency to ascend is not the same in all earth 

 by any means. In soils that contain a large percentage of vegetable mat- 

 ter, and in porous, sandy soils, it ascends readily, but not so in stifi" clays. 

 The capillary action above mentioned is of very great importance, as it 

 renders the earth the power to produce remunerating crops, by bringing 

 with it the soluble matters that rest in the subsoil, which, when they reach 

 the surface, evaporate the water, and leave the saline matters to accumu- 

 late behind them. 



A proper drain covered in, of the same depth as an open ditch, will 

 drain a much greater breadth of soil than the open ditch can possibly 

 effect, because their absorptive power is inferior to the blind drain, from 

 the fact that their sides become covered with vegetation. Besides, during 

 dry seasons, the water moves sluggishly over the uneven bottoms, frequently 

 lodging in pools, becomes stagnant, and gives off" an ofl'ensive, insalubrious 

 effluvia, highly noxious to the inhabitants in the vicinity, and sometimes 

 causing fatal diseases. 



If drainage can be directed into natural stream-^, you may diminish the 

 friction and accelerate the discharge, by straightening and thereby short- 

 ening the drains, and concentrating the flow. 



