BY DRAINING. 93 



In the first place, draining will reclaim, and render 

 productive, large tracts of land, which now produce little 

 or nothing useful, by reason of the water which covers 

 or saturates them. In the next place, it will improve 

 lands that are cold and wet, by reason of a level surface 

 and retentive subsoil, and render them far more manage- 

 able and productive, in grain, roots, and the more nutri- 

 tious grasses, by carrying off the superfluous water. 

 When there is an excess of moisture in the soil, plough- 

 ing and pulverization can only be imperfectly performed, 

 nor till late in spring, or in favorable weather — the bene- 

 fit of manure is lost, and the cultivated crop is light, and 

 more hable to be injured by late and early frosts, than it 

 would be if the land were laid dry. From the experience 

 of others, as well as from our own observation, we can 

 venture to say, that by thoroughly draining lands of the 

 above description, two weeks upon an average are gained 

 in the getting in and the ripening of the crop, one third is 

 gained in product, and one third is saved in the labor 

 of tillage. 



We have likened the offices of the soil to those of the 

 animal stomach — the preparation of food. And we have 

 said that these offices cannot be healthfully performed, 

 by the soil, without the agency of heat and air, as well 

 as of moisture. Now an excess of the latter excludes 

 the proper agency of the two former. We all know 

 that when the animal stomach is out of order, from any 

 cause, so that the food taken upon it is not properly di- 

 gested, the subsequent processes of nutrition are arrested, 

 the animal sickens, and ultimately dies. So with the 

 soil. If the organic matters deposited there, to feed the 

 crop, are not decomposed, or rotted, and resolved into a 

 liquid or gaseous form, so that they can be taken up by 

 the spongioles, the cultivated plant will become sickly 

 and unproductive, and the processes of healthy nutrition 

 be at a stand. This is the case in all grounds habitually 

 saturated with water. Hence the accumulation to excess, 

 in such grounds, of peaty and inert vegetable matters, and 

 their great fertility when thoroughly drained, and the ve- 

 getable matters rendered soluble ; and hence the necessi- 



