222 EXCESS OF WATER CONSIDERED. 



years, 40 ; Oxford, for 17 years, 36 ; Auburn, for 10 years, 34 ; Lewiston, for 10 years, 23 ; 

 Onondaga, 30 ; Rochester, for 13 years, 39 ; Hamilton, for 14 years, 35 ; Albany, for 10 

 years, 41 ; Lowville, 30; Potsdam, for 17 years, 28. Portland, Me. 44 inches. The fore- 

 going figures show that over the whole of our country the average quantity of rain is large, 

 and yet large crops are produced. I believe the true rule of practice is to drain lands which 

 are stiff from clay, and where water is disposed to stand upon the surface. Our climate being 

 dry, the quantity of rain which falls, and which exceeds that of England or Scotland, is dis- 

 posed of in all loamy soils where clay does not predominate. A farmer need not be in haste 

 to drain lands which dry rapidly in the spring, and which admit of early ploughing, or soon 

 after the snows have disappeared : that a wet soil, a marshy soil, one over which fogs linger for 

 a long time, should be drained there can be no doubt. 



For the reason, then, that our atmosphere is dry, and evaporation goes on rapidly, our lands 

 do not call for draining to the extent which has been enforced by lecturers and essay writers. 

 It does not follow as a consequence, that because we have much rain that the soil is necessarily 

 wet, and therefore requires draining. Where draining is not required it must operate in the 

 end injuriously, and therefore a loss will be sustained, greater than that which arises from the 

 .system itself. The rains which percolate through the soil hold in solution a small quantity of 

 carbonic acid ; this water, therefore, is competent to dissolve some of the valuable matters in 

 the soil, which will consequently be lost. The land will be constantly leached, and, though 

 the process may not go on rapidly, yet in the process of years a very large amount of soluble 

 matter, in the condition fit for the food of plants, will flow off through the drain. The state- 

 ment is made in view of analyses which have been made of drainage water. There is, there- 

 fore, no doubt of the statement that water which percolates through the soil, and then passes 

 off through drains, is more or less charged with the nutriment of plants. If so, it is not a mat. 

 ter of indifference whether channels are constructed which will greatly facilitate this exhausting 

 process. This side of the question should be examined. From the nature of the researches 

 required to set the question at rest, some time must elapse, and in the mean time observation 

 and experiment will increase our light upon a question of considerable importance to husbandry. 

 When lands are wet there is one effect of draining which is of some moment, but which has 

 not been dwelt upon by writers ; it is the replacement, in part, of the water by atmospheric 

 air. The air which penetrates below the surface, in increased quantities, performs important 

 functions. Oxidation of the oxidisable matters must take place — the chemical change which 

 soil and fine matters must undergo to fit them for aliments : this is probably one of the great 

 advantages of draining. Admitting this, it is not to be inferred that all lands require ditching on 

 this account. There is a certain quantity of water which the soil requires ; and it is necessary 

 that there should be the ability to retain water — to store it up for use during the intervals when 

 the rains are withheld. During these intervals, it has appeared to me that there is an upward 

 movement of the water ; and that the upper layers of soil are supplied by this movement j 

 that by this movement exhalation from the surface affects the rise of water to a considerable depth. 

 In proof of a constant exhalation, I may cite the fact that when an excavation in the soil is 



