76 Surface-Drainage of OrcJiards. 



SURFACE-DRAINAGE OF ORCHARDS. 



The general practice of tile-draining, so essential in English husbandry, 

 will not obtain to any great extent on the prairies while land is cheap and 

 labor dear. It must work its way slowly, first among the vegetable and 

 small-fruit gardens that surround our cities and villages, and then extend 

 more gradually to the large farms. Then we are becoming so used to 

 labor-saving implements, that we must have a machine by which to cut the 

 ditches for the tile before we shall commence any extended operations of 

 the kind. In the mean time, we must have surface-drainage, so that the 

 roots of trees do not stand in stagnant water. 



It is well known, that, when rain-water passes off through the soil, the 

 gases that have been washed down with it by the shower are absorbed 

 by the soil ; that is, the soil has a greater affinity for these gases, and they 

 are thus arrested by it. These gases are, at that period, reduced to their 

 original atoms, and ready to be taken up by the roots of the plants, to be 

 assimilated for their structure. On the other hand, if the soil becomes 

 saturated with water which cannot pass off through the soil, and must be 

 evaporated, the gases are evaporated with the water, and the plants are 

 thus robbed of their legitimate food. This proposition is easily estab- 

 lished on any of our clay soils, and especially those with retentive sub- 

 soils. 



In nearly all that part of the State lying between the Big Muddy River 

 and the Terre Haute and Alton Railroad, there is a band of indurated clay, 

 from four to twelve inches thick, lying from one to four feet below the sur- 

 face, — mostly one to two feet. The soil above and below this is friable 

 and porous ; while this band prevents the water passing up or down. For 

 all practical purposes, this acts like any hard-pan subsoil, and can only be 

 overcome by tile-draining or by weathering down its substance. Tlie plan 

 that we propose for the hard-pan subsoil will be available for this also. 



Where tile can be had at reasonable rates, it would be advisable to use 

 it on land worth a hundred or more dollars an acre ; but, on most of our 

 lands, we must, for the present, depend upon surface-draining. It is of little 

 importance to the owner of cheap lands if the open drains occupy a sixth 



