CHAPTER VIII. 



PREPARATION OF SOIL BY DRAINAGE. 



PXCESSIVE moisture will often prevent the immediate 

 •*^^ cultivation of our ideal strawberry land. Its absence 

 is fatal, its excess equally so. Let me suggest some of the 

 evil effects. Every one is aware that climate — that is, the 

 average temperature of the atmosphere throughout the year 

 — has a most important influence on vegetation. But a 

 great many, I imagine, do not realize that there is an under- 

 ground cUmate also, and that it is scarcely less important that 

 this should be adapted to the roots than that the air should 

 be tempered to the foliage. Water-logged land is cold. 

 The sun can bake, but not warm it to any extent. Careful 

 English experiments have proved that well-drained land is 

 from io° to 20° warmer than wet soils; and Mr. Parkes 

 has shown, in his "Essay on the Philosophy of Drainage," 

 that in " draining the ' Red Moss ' the thermometer in the 

 drained land rose in June to 66° at seven inches below the 

 surface, while in the neighboring water-logged land it would 

 never rise above 47°, — an enormous gain." 



In his prize essay on drainage. Dr. Madden confirms the 

 above, and explains further, as follows : " An excess of water 

 injures the soil by diminishing its temperature in summer 

 and increasing it in winter, — a transformation of nature 

 most hurtful to perennials, because the vigor of a plant in 

 spring depends greatly on the lowness of temperature to 

 which it has been subjected during the winter (within cer- 



