336 AGRICULTURE 



vatings has precisely the same effect on our fields. In dry 

 regions summer fallowing is used for the purpose of col- 

 lecting a supply of capillary water. Whatever rain falls is 

 saved by keeping the surface covered with a fine soil mulch, 

 and what moisture is drawn up toward the surface from the 

 ground water by capillary attraction is also conserved for 

 the crop that is to follow. 



TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION 



1. Is there any ground on your home farm too wet 

 or marshy for cropping successfully? If so, measure care- 

 fully the amount of land in such areas. Do any patches 

 break the regularity of cultivated fields? How much land 

 is practically wasted as far as any return in crops is con- 

 cerned ? 



2. What is the value of your farm per acre ? What is 

 its rental value per acre? What is the value of all the land 

 lost by being too wet to cultivate? What is its rental 

 value? Have you any land under cultivation that is too 

 wet at times to produce good crops? What do you esti- 

 mate is the loss? 



3. Draw a diagram of any pieces of marsh land on your 

 home farm, showing the outlet for drainage and the distance 

 the drain would have to run in each case. Are there any 

 places where a shallow run would serve? Have you any 

 low ground subject to rain floods from higher land? 

 If so, could a shallow ditch be made to serve as an eaves- 

 trough to save the flooding? 



4. Soil Drainage 



Necessary as water is to plants, however, much of our 

 soil needs drainage to rid it of an oversupply of free or 

 gravitational water. There are some eighty million acres of 

 marsh lands in the United States. The greater part of this 

 waste territory would make excellent farm land if properly 

 drained. 



