FARMERS' REGISTER, 



503 



illegitimate, the attention of the cuhivators of 

 South Caroliha can be speedily and properly di- 

 rected to thia greatest of agricuhural improve- 

 ments, the measure will be the greatest benefit 

 tiiat can be conferred on that commonwealth. And 

 even if it is prelerred to seek that ohject by a geo- 

 logical survey, at an expense of ^10,000 to be ap- 

 propriated every year, as long as the libert'.lity and 

 j)atience of the legislature shall hold out, and the 

 survey to continue just so long as it is so paid lor, 

 still the object, if thus indirectly gained, will be 

 cheaply purchased, though at a hundred times the 

 price of a more direct and proper mode. The proper 

 and cheapest course would be a survey limited to 

 (he discovery and testing of marl, and giving in- 

 struction in regard to its proper application, in 

 every part of South Carolina where it exists. And 

 ifthis were done, and the information, thus afiord- 

 ed, were appreciated and acted upon generally, the 

 benefits would be ten thousand fold greater than 

 the cost. — Ed. Far. Reg. 



STAGNANT WATER. 



From tlie Cultivator. 

 Of all the causes that contribute to render soils 

 poor and worthless, we believe there is none more 

 active than stagnant water, on the surface or im- 

 mediately below. Such soils are invariably close 

 and tenacious, and commonly quite unproductive. 

 Where there is a retentive subsoil, the surface 

 generally abounds in clay, is difl^icult to work, and 

 gives a less reward to labor than almost any other. 

 This is owing to the stagnant water held by it, 

 OS none of the valuable plants can flourish in a 

 soil so constituted. Land is liable to injury from 

 this cause, on which waterduring wet weatherrests 

 on the surface for even a short period, lor the roots 

 of a plant cannot penetrate a soil freely, in which 

 the density is such that rain water does not freely 

 sink through it to the natural drains in the sub- 

 soil, below the ordinary range of the roota ofplants. 

 Water is essential to the growth and pertection 

 of plan's, but water that does not circulate, or 

 which exists in too great quantities, is fatal to them; 

 and the first thing to be done, is to free soil from 

 this incumbrance, if we would give it productive- 

 ness, and render it easy of culture. 



It is from these well known efl'ects of stagnant 

 water, when on the surface, or within reach of the 

 roots of plants, that the necessity of ilraining arises, 

 and which system of operating, when fully carried 

 out, completely changes the character of lands sub- 

 mitted to such a course. JVlanures applied to soils 

 abounding in stagnant water, can produce little 

 effect ; the salts they contain are diluted, and can- 

 not produce that action, or circulation of atoms, 

 which appears absolutely necessary to productive- 

 ness. In clay, or in stagnant water, where sub- 

 stances are not exposed to heat and atmospheric 

 agencies, decomposition is slow. Every farmer 

 knows that manures produce much more effect on 

 loam, gravel, or drained clay soils, than on those 

 so retentive as lohave water on or near the surface. 



Drainins? them, and aeration, or the exposing the 

 soil to atmospheric action, to the influence of the 

 sun and air by deep ploughinir> seems to be the 

 only thing that can be relied on to correct this 

 serious evil. 



Instances indeed occur in which the wetness of 

 land is produced by sprinji's, which rising from the 

 earth spread over it ; but in far the greater num- 

 ber of cases, the stagnant water is owing to a re- 

 tentive subsoil, that prevents the escape of such 

 water as falls upon it. In either case, however, 

 the remedy is the same; and in the language of 

 Morton on Soils, complete and perli^ct draining is 

 the foundation of ail improvement in husbandry, 

 and it sliould, therelore, he the first step which 

 we take in attempting to improve or ameliorate 

 the soil. 



A very large proportion of the lands in this 

 country, are of that class that suH'er more or less 

 from the accumulation of water. No person can 

 traverse it in various directions, without being 

 sensible of this fact ; and in consequence of such 

 liability to suffer, the land in many districts is 

 cold and poor, as land not freed from stagnant 

 waier always must be. The hard pan lands 

 which cover so large a portion of the country, 

 may be named as belonging to this class, though 

 some of these contain more clay than others, and 

 are therefore more shallow and difficult to work 

 than others, where the subsoil, although still too 

 retentive, lies deeper, and is therelore not so in- 

 jurious as the first kind is well known to be, 



JMuch of this hard pan, when freed from its 

 stagnant water, drained and ploughed, will become 

 very Itjriile and productive ; indeed there is no 

 case in which a soil cannot by sufficient labor and 

 expense, be made precisely what is desired. The 

 native earths that (ro to constitute soils, the clay, 

 sand, and lime, in themselves do not make a soil 

 productive; properly mixed and proportioned they 

 constitute a base for the action of the vegetable 

 and animal manures, and the various salts or 

 stimulating acents, that excite the organs of plants 

 to visorous action, and enable them to make these 

 secretions from the matter furnished them, to be 

 appropriated to the growth of the plants. Man, 

 then, has only to do what nature in some cases 

 has herself done ; that is, so proportion the several 

 ingredients that go to make a productive soil, that 

 the desired result shall be aiiained. Chemical 

 analysis has here come to the aid of the agricultu- 

 rist, and shown him precisely the proportion of the 

 eartiis, and the nature of the ingredients that are 

 necessary to make a soil fertile, atid the causes that 

 tend to advance or retard such a consummation. 

 Where water is too abundant, it m isl be removed 

 by dralnitiir ; where the soil is too compact, it 

 1 must be loosened by deep or subsoil ploughing ; 

 where the proportion of clay is too great, sand 

 must be added until it is sufiiciently li-iable ; if 

 lime is ab?ent, it must be added ; if animal or 

 vegetable matter is wanting it must be supplied ; 

 and if the soil is too light and porous, clay will be 

 (bund a remedy most effectual. 



Whatever difference of opinion, therefore, may 

 be entertained of the best methods of lieeinir land 

 from stagnant water, there can be no reafonable 

 doubt of its propriety or necessity. To the liumer 

 who has lands wet, colil, and difficult to cultivate, 

 we wou'd say, free jour soil from all stagnant: 

 waters to the depth of eighteen or twenty-four 



