The Soil and its Treatment. 19 



has not been subjected to this treatment, whether the season 

 be a wet or a dry one. 



Autumn Cultivation. Many inexperienced persons have the 

 erroneous impression that the only effect of putting drain pipes 

 in land is to leave it drier, but that is a very one-sided and 

 incomplete statement of the case. No plants will thrive in a 

 water-logged soil; although they need abundant supplies of 

 moisture it must be in a moving condition and the soil in which 

 they grow must be aerated. Land which is pulverized deeply 

 has an immense number of particles, each separated from its 

 neighbour by a tiny air-space. When the soil is broken up' in 

 autumn the rains of winter sink in, and the soil becomes 

 saturated to its full holding capacity, the surplus passing off in 

 the drains. The water remaining in the soil is held in suspen- 

 sion as a film coating the surfaces of the soil particles, not as a 

 body of water in which the soil is lying. The amount of water 

 which the soil will hold depends upon the thoroughness of the 

 pulverization. When soil is allowed to lie untilled through the 

 winter water lies about on the top or runs off into the ditches, 

 and although the surface may be wet, the soil below holds con- 

 siderably less water than if it had been broken up. 



Not only does drained soil when properly worked absorb and 

 retain a large quantity of moisture, but both soil and water are 

 thoroughly aerated, by the air-spaces between the particles 

 and by the free oxygen which the film-water brought down 

 during its passage as rain through the atmosphere. 



Spring Cultivation. Having secured an abundant supply of 

 moisture in the soil as a result of autumn cultivation it is 

 necessary to take steps to retain it there for the use of crops 

 and at the same time to bring the surface into a warm and dry 

 condition for the reception of seeds as early as possible in the 

 spring. 



The frosts of winter will have made the surface soil friable 

 but the action of later rains will probably have beaten down 

 and compacted this kindly surface so that it is " run together "; 

 if left undisturbed in this condition the water below will rise 

 to the surface by capillary attraction and a continuous evapo- 



