1889.] PUBLIC DOCUJMENT — No. 4. 51 



stances when salt or plaster or sulphate of soda or fertilizer 

 has appeared to act beneficially as regards influencing the 

 moisture in the land, always remembering that, unless the 

 season be exceptionally dry, such observations can scarcely 

 be successfully made. It is sufficient for my purpose here 

 to simply call attention to this point. 



I will but refer to the property that clay has of swelling 

 when wet, and shrinking as it dries, by which it often so 

 clogs the pores as to obstruct the capillary passage of water. 

 The application of lime, or salt, or alum to water which will 

 not deposit its sediment (settle), causes the clay to shrink 

 at once and fall to the bottom ; and it is believed that the ap- 

 plication of these or other saline materials to clay soil often 

 improves the drainage and capillary powers, by causing the 

 clay to so shrink as to open the pores of the soil, when 

 clogged, to the passage of capillary water. Professor Hil- 

 gard of California has well treated this subject under the 

 title of flocculation. 



We have now thought and talked science, a little discur- 

 sively perhaps, as is becoming to the audience. We will 

 now talk practice ; and, in line with our preceding remarks, 

 taking for our illustrative crop the corn plant, will put into 

 plain form the information how we should gi'ow, or attempt 

 to grow, a crop, the maximum for the fertility present, and 

 oflfer certain explanations as we proceed. 



First, we desire well-drained land ; the reason wherefor is 

 that stagnant water is injurious to growth, and so also is 

 overmuch water. Then undrained land (and this is very 

 important to consider), especially if clayey, is apt to become 

 puddled, as it were, and hence to dry excessively during the 

 droughty season, as we have before stated. What the crop 

 requires in soil, for its best development during the growing 

 season, if I may make a distinction, is moisture, not water. 

 Drainage keeps the water table from rising above the drains, 

 and thus preserves the soil above the drains from all but 

 percolating water of rainfall and capillary water supply. 



Commencing with suitable soil, we would manure or fer- 

 tilize broadcast, and plough shallow, for reasons which I 

 have given in a previous lecture, to be found in the twenty- 

 eighth annual report of the secretary of the Massachusetts 



