158 THE CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



.as well as above the surface of the soil, and which is known 

 by the common term malaria. This miserable disease which 

 makes the life of the American citizen uncomfortable and 

 wretched the greater part of the year, is bred in swamps 

 and undrained lands; and when these are improved and 

 freed from the constantly evaporating water, the pestilence 

 is laid and health is restored. The chilling dampness which 

 loads the air with poisonous gases no longer rises in foul va- 

 pors from the land ; and the air becomes pure and health- 

 ful. The farmer thus confers a blessing upon his neigh- 

 bors, while he improves his own circumstances, and thus af- 

 fords a new proof of the fact that he who helps himself helps 

 the world, and that no man works for himself alone; much 

 less the farmer, whose vocation makes him the feeder and 

 clother of mankind. 



The practice of irrigation is the converse of draining. It 

 consists in bringing water from distant streams or other 

 sources, by means of canals and ditches, and spreading it 

 over lands where the rainfall is not sufficient for the growth 

 of crops, or in many cases where the ordinary climate pre- 

 vails, water from adjacent streams or springs is brought 

 and spread over lower lands which are laid down in grass 

 and are kept in permanent meadow. No other country in 

 the world, than ours, offers such a vast scope for the im- 

 provement of lards by this means. Millions of acres of land 

 unsurpassingly rich in all the elements of plant growth want 

 only water to make them fruitful and productive of all the 

 varied farm crops; and by means of this mode of improve- 

 ment millions of farmers may find homes and a comfortable 

 subsistence and furnish great wealth to the community, 

 where now desolation and solitude prevail. At the same 

 time many farmers, w y hose grass crops are cut off and who*;> 

 winters supply of hay is greatly reduced by drouth have an 

 abundance of water running to waste upon their farms by 

 the use of which the yield of grass and hay might be doubled. 

 Comparative poverty might thus be turned to actual wealth 

 by the mere employment of water at a little cost, which 

 .now flows away uselessly, or perhaps spreads out injurious- 



