ARTIFICIAL SOILS. 125 



plants that seem to flourish wonderfully. Unfortu- 

 nately, these plants are aquatic or semi-aquatic plants, 

 and seem to enjoy a wet soil. They plainly point to 

 all the trouble. The soil is wet. These flags, mosses, 

 and reeds, these rapid-growing water plants, plainly 

 tell us just why our farm-crops will not grow there. 

 The water lingers after every rain, and in the spring it 

 is wet and soppy there. In the winter there are little 

 patches of ice, and in long rains the water seeps 

 through the grasses and moss in sluggish rivulets. 

 These wet places vary from actual bogs and swamps, 

 to meadows that have pools and puddles lingering 

 after every rain. All are unfit for good crops, and 

 must be improved by draining. 



Drainage, or treating any soil so that its surplus 

 water will run away, is a great science by itself. We 

 cannot now take it up, yet we must learn to recognize 

 any soil that needs it. Wherever the common sphag- 

 num moss grows under the grass, wherever aquatic 

 plants appear, wherever water lingers in pools after a 

 rain, the soil needs draining. If we find such a place, 

 and wish to cultivate it and make it produce good 

 paying crops, we must get rid of this surplus water 

 that clings to the soil like water in a sponge. There 

 are many ways of doing this ; some cheap and easy 

 but not very permanent, others more costly but very 

 efficient and durable. The soil must be cleared of- 

 water by finding or making some opening where the 

 water can escape to a lower level, and thus leave the 

 soil dry. A ditch dug through the field will drain 



