DRAINING THE LAND 



153 



sition. You need only to observe, as you pass along any 



highway, to see how slight is vegetation, and how sickly 



are cultivated crops on lands not drained. A soil that is 



constantly saturated with water will not permit a good 



growth of crops. The essential conditions 



for growth are wanting. It is understood 



readily that where a tile drain, or, in fact, 



any sort of substitute, when constructed and 



placed three or four feet below the surface 



of the ground, the water level is naturally 



lowered to a point on a level with the bottom 



of the drain. Drainage, therefore, provides 



a large pasture ground for plant roots and 



a deep one, also, as a consequence, for all 



time to come. 



You have proven, in your own experience, 

 that roots will not grow in a soil saturated 

 with water. They try to do so for a time, but 

 soon sicken and die. If the water table is only 

 10 or 12 inches below the surface of the soil, 

 the roots are obliged to grow within that limit. 

 But if the water table is lowered another 

 foot, the feeding and growing limit for roots 

 is deepened and, consequently, enlarged, to 

 the benefit of the plant and to the crop. 



Perfectly drained soils, drained to a depth 

 of three or four feet, show plant roots 

 throughout this body limit. It stands to rea- 

 son that such a root-foraging ground is 

 more desirable than a shallow one, made so by a high 

 water table near the surface of the ground. And here 

 are the reasons : there is more room for the roots ; there 

 is more plant food to be secured ; there is more warmth 

 in the soil ; there is more air to be used ; hence, there is 



RED CLOVER 

 ROOTS 



Showing why 



the soil should 



be deep 



