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stood, comprise all the requisites of success, and enable him in a very 

 great measure to regard with comparative indifference whether the 

 season prove unusually wet or unusually dry ; if the former, the drains 

 remove all superfluous water, and the loosening of the subsoil allows 

 the egress of water through all its pores, which are speedily filled ; and 

 mulching the surface, so as to prevent evaporation, retains the water 

 where plants can reach it, instead of its being rapidly consumed by 

 drying winds sweeping over the soil. 



Of all operations relating to soil culture, there are none whose values 

 are so well established as these, and yet they are operations to which 

 the great majority of cultivators are strangers. Crops may be deluged, 

 starved, for want of proper depths of soil, or burned up by drought and 

 heat, yet the well-known remedies against such extremes are practically 

 ignored. 



Objectors to draining frequently argue that in a climate subject to 

 long-continued droughts His worse than useless, as it would still further 

 increase the evils resulting from a deficient supply of moisture. It 

 seems not to be generally understood that draining in connection with, 

 proper culture increases the capability of the soil for absorbing and 

 retaining moisture. Place a sponge in a vessel and sprinkle it with 

 water; fora time it will all be absorbed, but as soon as the pores are 

 tilled it ceases to be taken up. Soils act in a similar manner. They 

 also have their respective absorbing capacities, varying of course ac- 

 cording to their nature, whether a compact clay or a peaty morass. The 

 last is of such an absorbent character as to be called spongy. The ob- 

 ject in draining is simply to allow the superfluous water to pass off. 

 No water can reach the drains until the pores of the soil are satisfied 

 or filled. It is therefore evident that the deeper the soil is drained the 

 greater becomes the reservoir of contained moisture, so that on soils of 

 gravely or sandy nature a more luxuriant vegetation will be produced 

 after they are artificially drained. With clay soils this improvement 

 is still more obvious ; no good clay soil can be considered in best crop- 

 ping condition until drained. Tillage, manures, and seed are to a cer- 

 tain extent wasted on the best clays without this fundamental improve- 

 ment. 



The utility of deepening the soil can not be questioned. In common 

 parlance, a good soil is seldom mentioned without the addition of the 

 word deep, thus testifying to the value of this property, yet how few 

 make any attempt to deepen a shallow soil. The probability of bring- 

 ing to the surface a poor strata has been given in argument against 

 subsoiling. Even if this were the result it would be an additional 

 reason in favor of the process, as it would place the soil where it can be 

 enriched ; but subsoiling proper only loosens the under strata. Trench- 

 ing, which implies a reversal of the soil, may occasionally afford grounds 

 for this objection, at least for a time, until it becomes properly amel- 

 iorated. 



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