264 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



as do the parts above ground. When nearly all the spaces in the soil 

 are filled with water, very little air can exist there. Drainage helps 

 to ventilate the soil ; the tiles form passage-ways through which the 

 air is forced by atmospheric changes. Drainage increases the room 

 which the roots may occupy. It also makes the soil warmer. This 

 hastens the germination of seed and lengthens the growing season. 

 A very important effect of drainage, a singular one in fact, is to in- 

 crease the effective soil moisture. From the higher temperature, 

 coupled with the presence of more fresh air, the drained soil is su- 

 perior in another way. Soil is alive with bacteria. The little organ- 

 isms are to the plant what the cook is to the family they prepare 

 the food, make it edible to the plant, so to speak. By their agency 

 manure and clay and sand, which the plant cannot use as such, are 

 changed into salts, which dissolve in water, and with it pass into the 

 roots to sustain the plant. These bacteria need fresh air as much as 

 plants or animals do. In the drained land there is plenty of it. 

 Moreover, a congenial temperature is needful as much to them as to 

 man, and this, too, they find in the drained soil. Here, then, they 

 thrive. (N. H. C. B. 118; Out. Ag. Dept. B. 174.) 



Cooperation. When the outlet ditches are located on land be- 

 longing to one individual, he has merely to construct them as he 

 chooses and pay the cost of the work. But in all large tracts in 

 which a number of landowners have interests, open ditches must be 

 constructed by the cooperation of all parties benefited. In several 

 States methods of doing this are provided for by statute. Outlets for 

 the drainage of tracts varying from a few hundred up to many 

 thousand acres have been provided for in this way, each owner 

 within the district paying a share of the expense of such work pro- 

 portionate to the benefit ne derives. It is intended that when these 

 main channels have been made, each owner shall be provided with 

 an outlet for his drainage and that all subsequent drainage of his 

 own land shall be done at his own expense, without in any way in- 

 fringing upon the rights of others, while the general outlet will be 

 controlled by the proper officers as provided by law. 



It is not often that drainage of a comprehensive character can 

 be accomplished without cooperation among land owners. There 

 are common interests involved that cannot be separated. The 

 owner of land occupying a higher area than his neighbor some- 

 times has no outlet without crossing the land of his neighbor. If 

 the drain so constructed will benefit his neighbor, the latter should 

 bear a proportional part of the expense of the work done on his own 

 land. A case can scarcely be found where the making of a drain 

 for the benefit of upper land and conducting it through that occu- 

 pying a lower level can work any injury to the lower land. It is in 

 accordance with justice and equity, however, that the work of im- 

 proving the upper land by artificial means should be done in such 

 a way that no injury will result to anyone. Some farmers are unin- 

 tentionally captious in cases where the improvements of a neigh- 

 bor's land requires some concession on their part. At the same 

 time there is great reluctance on the part of some to consider the 



