I5O FARM DEVELOPMENT 



The effect on the soil is shown in various ways. 

 Planting and cultivating may be done earlier in the 

 spring, which will insure to crops planted in due season 

 their maturity before early frosts. Drainage also gives 

 the farmer a longer time in which to do his spring work. 

 Drainage holds the soil open to the circulation of the 

 air, so that oxygen and other gases may act in preparing 

 the soil for the plants. Drainage greatly lessens injury 

 from " heaving." In Ohio and other states, where the 

 peculiar clay soils greatly expand or " heave " upon 

 freezing, causing the winter wheat, rye, clover plants, 

 etc., to be broken off from their roots, and the crops 

 thus injured, drainage removes the excess of water and 

 the soils do not expand so much. 



Not the least among the benefits of drainage is that 

 it opens the soil to the entrance of the air and makes it 

 a better and more healthful home for bacteria, and for 

 plant and animal life in general. Drainage adapts soils 

 to a greater variety of crops, and a rotation of several 

 crops is known to be more profitable than the continuous 

 planting to one crop. Drainage helps to bring the farm 

 up to that ideal which enables us to grow, under system- 

 atic rotation plans, those crops which combine to make 

 the farm the most profitable. 



Increase of certainty and quality of crops. Poorly 

 drained lands are usually low lying, and are, therefore, 

 fairly moist, even in dry years. In wet years, if drained 

 properly, these rich lands raise superior crops. 



A more profitable use of fertilizers is brought about by 

 draining the land in such a way that there is only a 

 proper amount of capillary water in the soil and that 

 there are healthy crops to make good use of the land. 

 In case of the application of expensive commercial 

 fertilizers to the land, the above is an important 

 consideration, and especially so in case of crops which 

 require a large amount of expensive hand labor and 



