504 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



more than one-half of our upland farms would be drained to 

 advantage. 



Wet lands are technically termed cold and sour. Carbonic 

 and other acids prevail largely, and prevent the generation of 

 a healthy vegetation. When air can penetrate under the sur- 

 face certain chemical changes take place, which render those 

 gases innocuous, and which so decompose many of the com- 

 pounds of minerals and salts as to alter their hitherto injurious 

 natures and make them directly conduce to vegetable growth. 



But more than this : without warmth there is no vegetation ; 

 and in cold lands only a few crops will mature. Of course, so 

 long as the sod is full of water, air cannot penetrate or carry 

 in the sun's warmth, whilst under the sun's rays evaporation is 

 rapid. 



The absorption of water into the soil expands it; upon its 

 evaporation it contracts and cracks, — peaty soils to the amount 

 of one-fifth, — and rapidly bakes into a hard crust ; for, in pro- 

 portion as the water evaporates, the earth tends to return to 

 its original structure ; and as the presence of water forbids 

 the entrance of air, and as contraction keeps pace with evap- 

 oration, when the water is fairly gone the earth is closely 

 locked up. 



But by thorough drainage the water is drawn away early, so 

 that the warm spring air may sweeten and enliven the whole j 

 then the plough may go down as far as the ploughman wishes, 

 and the growing grain delights the beholder. 



In a climate like ours, and particularly with such a spring as 

 that last past, no means for the early disposal of superfluous 

 water should be lost. It has been found by accurate experi- 

 ment that the difference of season between parts of the same 

 land drained and undrained was two weeks. 



The past season has called the attention of every one to the 

 necessity of some changes in our culture that may enable us 

 to withstand the evils attendant upon water, whether its excess 

 or absence. 



The spring of the present year was rendered extremely late 

 by its coldness and wetness, so that in some places vegetation 

 was delayed several weeks, and had hardly got established 

 before it was seized by the summer drought. Now, the qucs- 



