WHY SHOULD LAND BE DRAINED? 375 



That land should be made damper by being made more 

 dry, that under-draining should be one of the best pre- 

 ventives of the ill effects of drought this is the apparently 

 anomalous proposition on which one of the strongest argu- 

 ments in favor of draining is based. 



When we see a field baked to the consistence of a brick, 

 gaping open in wide cracks, and covered with a stunted 

 growth of parched and thirsty plants, it seems hard to be- 

 lieve that the simple laying of hollow tiles, four feet deep, 

 in the dried-up mass, would do anything at all toward the 

 improvement of its condition ; for the present season it 

 would not, but for the next it would, and for every season 

 thereafter, and in increasing degree, so long as the tiles 

 continued to act as effective drainage. 



The baking and cracking, and the unfertile condition of 

 the soil are the result of a previous condition of entire satu- 

 ration. Clay cannot be moulded into bricks, nor can it be 

 dried into lumps unless it is first made soaking wet. Dry, 

 or only damp clay, once made fine, can never again be made 

 lumpy, unless it is first made thoroughly wet, and is pressed 

 together while in its wet condition. Neither can a consi- 

 derable heap of pulverized clay, kept covered from the rain, 

 but exposed to the sun and air, ever become even apparently 

 dry, except within a few inches of its surface. After 

 under-draining has had time to bring the soil, to a depth 

 of two or three feet, to a thoroughly drained condition, 

 it will equally prevent it from being baked into lumps, or 



