64 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



its luxuriance and productiveness ; but in excess, it is either 

 wholly destructive, or produces only that which is worthless or 

 pernicious. Every one knows this ; but it does not come within 

 my province to go into a philosophical discussion of the proper 

 ties of water as a constituent of vegetation, or of the modes in 

 which it is supposed to operate. An excess of water in the soil 

 prevents the access of the air, which is essential to the health of 

 the plants. It reduces the temperature when it becomes stag 

 nant in the soil. It favors the approach of frost, so that crops 

 are often cut off, in low places, which, but for the wetness of 

 the soil, would otherwise have been fully and seasonably ma 

 tured. It renders the working of the soil difficult and labo 

 rious, and very often impossible. 



The removal of an excess of water from the land is the object 

 of drainage, as the throwing of water over the land is the object 

 of that other great and most beneficial operation of husbandry, 

 irrigation, of which I shall speak in its proper place. 



Lands may be injured from excess of water in three different 

 ways ; first, from being flooded by the tides of the sea ; second, 

 by permanent springs in the land ; and, third, from the retentive 

 character of the soil, holding fast, like a sponge, the rains which 

 fall ; and perhaps from the formation of the land the water 

 having no chance to escape. These causes may operate singly, 

 or, to a degree, in combination. There are cases in which, where 

 the sea itself does not reach the lands directly, yet it forces back 

 sometimes a fresh-water stream, by which the land is flooded, 

 and the same injurious effects are produced. 



Much land in every country is perfectly useless and worthless 

 from these several causes. The question, however, whether the 

 drainage of it will prove remunerative, involves a variety of con 

 siderations, and many of a strictly local character, which must 

 be taken into view by persons who propose to undertake the 

 drainage of their lands, but upon which it would be impossible 

 for me to enter. There are considerations, connected with the 

 subject, which are not to be measured by a pecuniary standard, 

 but whose importance cannot be over-estimated. I mean, for 

 example, such as refer to the health of the country. The fogs 

 and dampness, arising from wet and undrained lands, are a pro 

 lific source of ill health and sickness. Tracts of land in Eng 

 land, which were liable to fevers and agues, and consumptions 



