LAND DRAINAGE 629 



that much land experiences is often more injurious than 

 the prolonged wetness of swamp land. On the latter 

 there is no loss except on the investment value of the land, 

 which is likely to be low. On the tilled land, however, a 

 considerable sum of money is expended for labor, seed, 

 and perhaps fertilizers and manures, without corresponding 

 returns. The loss under these conditions may be heavy. 

 For the ordinary farm and garden crops, the fluctuation 

 of the soil moisture from a condition of somewhat pro- 

 longed saturation to the dry and often hard condition 

 that usually results is exceedingly difficult to withstand. 

 Drainage is concerned not only with the surface and the 

 topsoil water, but also with the subsoil water to the depth 

 to which the roots of crops normally penetrate. 



532. History of drainage. The need for soil drainage 

 in the production of the ordinary farm and garden crops 

 on many soils has been recognized from the beginning of 

 historic times. The old Roman husbandman Cato, 1 and 

 his successors of the next ten centuries, in their writings 

 on agriculture pointed out the importance of draining wet 

 soil, and Cato explains how bundles of faggots should be 

 buried in trenches in the land. ' In western Europe 2 

 artificial drainage has been practiced for some hundreds 

 of years. In England within the last two hundred years 

 drainage by means of pipes has become a general practice. 



The practice of underdrainage by means of clay tile 

 was begun in America in the earjy part of the nineteenth 



1 Cato, M. P. Roman Farm Management by a Virginia 

 Gentleman. New York. 1913. 



2 Elliott, C. G. Engineering for Land Drainage. New 

 York. 1912. 



Miles, M. Land Drainage, Chapter VI. New York. 1892. 

 French, H. F. Farm Drainage, Chapter II. New York, 

 1859. 



