210 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



have not time enough to do our work. Whenever your land is 

 wet in the spring, whenever you are late in ploughing, your 

 land is benefited by giving you additional time. I had a piece 

 of land in Exeter, N. H., lying on what looked like upland — a 

 springy hillside — so wet, that cranberries grew and ripened 

 there every year. That land, on which no crop would grow, I 

 drained four feet deep. It was sand and clay, mostly sand, but 

 coming down to clay after awhile. That land is now some of 

 the very earliest in that part of the country. The effect of 

 drainage upon land of that character is very valuable. The 

 water is not only taken away from the surface, but it is taken 

 out of the subsoil, so that land which has been wet and miry 

 heretofore, will be dry as early as any land you have ; — not, 

 perhaps, so warm as sandy land, but as early, and that is a 

 great advantage. 



Now, besides the merely mechanical effect of composting the 

 soil, and making it so you can work it, you gain an advantage 

 in another way, in the warmth of the soil. You know perfectly 

 well that heat does not go downward in water. You cannot 

 heat water by the application of heat to the surface, in any 

 way. You may put a hot fire over a vessel of water, and keep 

 it there until the water evaporates, and you will not warm the 

 bottom. Heat is propagated in water by the movement of the 

 particles. You warm it at the bottom, and the heated particles 

 rise, and the cold ones fall. Two particles of water do not 

 impart any heat to each other by contact ; it is merely by 

 motion that heat is propagated from the bottom. Your soil, 

 being full of cold water in the spring, of course you may have 

 ever so hot a sun upon it, but no heat goes down ; you may 

 have a warm spring rain, and it may lie on top of the ground, 

 but it will not warm the water in the ground ; it cannot ; there 

 is no motion there. Whereas, if you have an under-drain, four 

 feet below the surface, when the winter begins to break up, the 

 cold water falls and goes off, the warm water that comes down 

 in rain takes its place. You lengthen your season in that way, 

 and you will find that an advantage in every respect. 



That, perhaps, is not a direct answer to the question that is 

 suggested, What lands require drainage ? but it suggests that a 

 great many lands that are ordinarily not thought to require 

 drainage will be benefited by it somewhat. Of course, it is not 



