CHAPTER XII. 



Why Trees in Bottoms never Drown Aeration. 



FEW persons, unless they have tested it, have any idea of 

 that peculiar quality that soils never disturbed deeply 

 have of holding water on the surface, in ponds, for 

 instance, for years, and yet immediately after being drained, 

 if examined, the ground will be found friable and ready for 

 the plow just beneath. I once undertook to grow carp, and 

 for two years kept a small pond filled with water ; but find- 

 ing the venture a failure, and having drained the water off, 

 the idea occurred to me to examine the bottom at once, and 

 see how deep the mud was. To my amazement, it was only 

 about three or four inches deep, and on being scraped away 

 with a hoe, the bottom was actually ready for the plow. The 

 few inches of previously stirred surface was mud, but the 

 balance firm. This peculiarity of unbroken ground not tak- 

 ing up and holding water in it in a free or mud state is a wise 

 provision of nature, and accounts for the fact that wild grape 

 vines and forest trees in river bottoms are often, for weeks, 

 several feet under water without the slightest harm. Had 

 such ground been deeply plowed, and especially subsoiled, 

 trees in such locations would certainly be killed. But never 

 having been disturbed, the particles of soil are in that pecu- 

 liar natural relation to each other that, while they readily 

 admit between them a certain quantity of water, and allow its 

 passage through to the roots and subsoil, it is impossible to 

 make such undisturbed ground take more than that specified 

 amount, and so tree roots under such circumstances are not 

 by any means standing in mud several feet deep, as many 

 people ignorantly suppose. While I am sure all my readers 

 can recall instances in their own knowledge of trees standing 

 thus in water for weeks in low places, and apparently enjoy- 

 ing the bath, a most remarkable instance was told me 



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