44 WET AND COLD SOILS IMPROVED BY DRAINING. 



Now, let two adjoining fields be wet or moist in different degrees, that 

 which is wettest will almost at aJI limes give off the largest quantity of 

 vapour, and will therefore be the coldest. Let spring arrive, and the 

 genial sun will gently warm the earth on the surface of the one, while 

 the water in the other will swallow up the heating rays, and cause them 

 te re-ascend in the watery vapour. Let summer come, and while the 

 soil of the one field rises at raid-day to perhaps 100° F. or upwards, that 

 of the other may, in ordinary seasons, rarely reach 80° or 90° — in wet 

 seasons may not even attain to this temperature, and only in long 

 droughts will derive the full benefit of the solar rays. I shall hereafter 

 more particularly advert to the important influence which a hightempe- 

 rature in the soil exercises over the growth of plants, the functions of 

 their several parts, and their power of ripening seeds — as well as to 

 certain beautiful adaptations by which nature, when left to herself, is 

 continually imparting to the soil, especially in northern latitudes, those 

 qualities which fit it for deriving the greatest possible benefit from the 

 presence of the sun's rays. In the mean time you are willing to con- 

 cede that warmth in the soil is favourable to the success of your agricul- 

 tural pursuits. What, then, is the cause of the coldness and poverty, 

 the fickleness and uncertainty of produce, in land of the kind now al- 

 luded to ? It is the presence of too much water. What is the remedy ? 

 A removal of the excess of water. And how ? By effectual drainage. 



There are other benefits to the land, which follow from this removal 

 of the excess of water by draining, of which it would here be out of 

 place to treat; but a knowledge of the above principle shows you that 

 the first effect upon the soil is the same as if ^'ou were to place it in a 

 warmer climate, and under a milder sky — where it could bring to ma- 

 turity other fruits, and yield more certain crops. 



The application of this merely rudimentary knowledge will enable 

 you to remove from many improvable spots the stigma of being ^oor and 

 cold ; an appellation hitherto applied to them, — not because they are by 

 nature unproductive, but because ignorance, or indolence, or indifference, 

 has hitherto prevented their natural capabilities from being either ap- 

 preciated or made available. 



Note.— In reference to the supposed fertilizing effect of snow, adverted to in tlie above 

 lecture, I may mention a fact observed by Heyer, and quoted by Liebig, (p. 125), that willow 

 branches immersed in snow water put forth roots three or four times longer than when put 

 into pure distilled water, and that the latter remained clear while the snow water became 

 coloured. This shows that snow contains something not present in distilled water, which 

 is capable of accelerating the growth of plants. The experiment would have been more 

 instructive in regard to natural operations, had the effect of the snow water been com- 

 pared with that of an equal bulk of rain water, collected under similar circumstances. 



