MARCH. Ill 



he explains in connection with Mr. Dalton's experiments, and 

 shows that a soil six inches deep will suffer from drought in 

 ten days, in June, July, or August, while a soil three feet 

 deep will not be injured during the whole months of June, 

 July, and August ; if well drained, defying alike " droughts 

 or excessive rains." 



Water is the great element of plants. No matter what the 

 character of the soil, the quality of the manure, or what its 

 cultivation ; if it suffers for want of moisture vegetation is 

 checked, and the crop is diminished just in proportion as that 

 is withheld. The deep soils of the West owe their fertility 

 to their depth and the great reservoir of moisture, which the 

 longest drought cannot wholly exhaust, though, perhaps, 

 somewhat lessen. All the analyses of the soil show that it 

 differs not materially from any of our New England earths; 

 and though to its fineness and the " remarkable comminu- 

 tion of its particles" have been attributed the secret of their 

 richness, we apprehend the same soil, only eight or ten inches 

 deep, overlaying a gravelly substratum, would claim little more 

 credit for fertility than our own heavier and more compact 

 loams. No, the fertility lies in their depth, and their capac- 

 ity for retaining moisture, on which the growth of every good 

 crop must mainly depend. We may plant and enrich, — we 

 may mulch and hoe, — we may prune and thin out, — but if 

 the soil is deficient in moisture all our labor will be in vain. 

 Something we may do by liberal supplies of water and occa- 

 sional irrigation, but even this is not like the constant, ever 

 present, regular supply, deep in the earth, wherein the deli- 

 cate roots — not saturated at one time, and parched up at 

 another, — draw up the food that nourishes the fruit, and per- 

 fects the growth of every living plant. 



Looking at the facts, as we have them presented from so 

 many sources, we cannot evade the great question, "How 

 shall we provide against the slight or excessive droughts so 

 common to our latitude ?" It is easily answered. Trench- 

 ing, DEEP AND THOROUGH TRENCHING, Or ou a more extcnsive 

 scale, suBsoiLiNG, are the only means of accomplishing this. 

 Once done, we then have a soil upon which "neither droughts 

 nor excessive rains are much feared." 



