AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 335 



wholesome waters linger, thus inducing hopeless barrenness ? They find it 

 necessary to drain the sandy Steppes of Hungary and Russia, shortly after 

 which the daisy and dandelion appear ; then in turn the wholesome and 

 nutritive grasses take their place. The operations of the agriculturist, in 

 causing changes upon land, are either chemical or mechanical. When he 

 plows, subsoils, and drains, he alters the physical character of his soil, — 

 when he manures, limes, marls, &c., he changes its chemical constitution. 

 These operations, therefore, are distinct. When a soil will grow all the 

 crops we desire, mechanical operations arc all that are required to retain 

 it in fertility. If inorganic constituents are wanting, draining will prepare 

 it for further operations, but will not remove sterility. All the older drain- 

 age in this country and Europe, was chiefly surface drainage, by furrow 

 and ridge. This, besides leaving the soil surcharged with water, carried 

 off the finer particles of earth, and with them such manures and fertilizing 

 substances as were removable from the surface in suspension. When heavy 

 rain storms occurred, a large portion of the manure top-dressing was car- 

 ried into the ditches and streams. The modern method, instead of drain- 

 ing over the surface, does away entirely with ridges and furrows, makes the 

 surface level, and causes the water to drain downward through the land to 

 the under-ground channels. In its course through the soil, the fine earthy 

 powder of the mold, and the particles of manure or loose vegetable matter 

 are left in it, and the soluble manure is carried down for the sustenance of 

 vegetation. This saving of fertilizing mold greatly increases the produc- 

 tiveness of thoroughly drained land, apart from the permeability, increased 

 temperature, and finer condition of the soil, induced by drainage. 



Estimating the thorough drainage of land by the cubic contents of the 

 soil, calculating from the level of the bottom of the drainage to the surface 

 of the soil, cannot possibly give any exposition of the agricultural effect ; 

 because it has not yet been fully determined, by experiment or practice, 

 how far it is beneficial to the growth of plants to remove free water from 

 the lower portion of the subsoil. In some localities the results of experi- 

 ments are in favor of moderate depths of drains, showing that the most 

 beneficial distance from the surface for the free water is two feet ; when 

 below that, in dry summers, the crops are found to suffer, and it is custom- 

 ary to dam up the water to that level. Water will rise some inches in soil 

 by capillary or molecular attraction, but in such cases rarely fills the inter- 

 stices to such an extent as to exclude atmospheric air, but attaches itself 

 merely to the surface of the particles, where it remains available to the 

 roots of plants, without any of the bad effects resulting from stagnant free 

 water. Until agriculturists, by experiment, fully and practically deter- 

 mine as to the proper distance for retaining a supply, the depth to which 

 land should be drained cannot be determined. When ascertained, the rule 

 will be found to vary with the nature and condition of the soil. 



We do not desire that our drains should deprive the land of moisture, 

 but merely adjust the quantity so as to produce the highest state of fertility ; 

 and we have invariably found, in all varieties of soil, whether on high or low 



