DRAINING. 179 



plants which will generally be found on wet soils or grass-land : Juncus 

 cffusus, Juncus acutiflorus, commonly known as rushes. The tufted 

 hair-grass (Air a ccespitosa) and the glow-worm grass (Luzula) are indi- 

 cations of a wet subsoil. 



Grain, turnips, and grasses, when sown on a wet soil, acquire a stunted 

 habit, and have a sickly and unhealthy appearance. Many farmers 

 think that, so long as there is no water lying on the surface-soil in 

 summer, there is no need of drainage. They think there is no harm 

 done by water lying on the soil during winter ; this is, however, a great 

 mistake. It is exceedingly injurious to allow water to remain stagnant 

 on the surface even during the winter season, as it keeps the soil in 

 a damp sour state, so that when summer comes, a season intended by 

 nature to warm the land for the benefit of the crops, it takes the heat of 

 the sun's rays a long time to evaporate the water from the surface of the 

 soil, and thus the best portion of the growing season is over before the 

 roots of the plants can receive any heat from the sun. Another great 

 disadvantage in wet soils is that, if the heat of the sun is allowed to 

 evaporate the water from the land, the soil always remains in a baked 

 hard state, and more especially does this take place in clay soils. On 

 the other hand, where land has been drained, the water passes freely 

 through both the soil and subsoil, leaving in the soil, as it passes 

 through, the elements which it contains for the benefit of the plants. As 

 soon as warm dry weather sets in, the rays of the sun act at once upon 

 the soil, and it remains free, open, and warm during the growing season. 



A great many of our clay soils which remain in a wet and undrained 

 state, and which at all seasons are stiff, and in the summer season are as 

 if they had been baked, can be vastly improved by judicious drainage. 

 When the water is removed by drainage from clay soils, they gradually 

 become more porous, and thus the air gets in and makes them free, open, 

 and friable. Any soil is always the richer for having the air penetrat- 

 ing into it; and where drains are made in the subsoil at a proper distance 

 from the surface, water naturally makes its way to these drains, and as 

 the water seeks through the soil, it makes way for air, which follows it 

 through as far as the water goes ; and at the same time these drains 

 carry off, by means of the water, any bad ingredient in the soil which 

 might be injurious to the plants. 



Wet soils never receive the same benefit from manures put upon them 

 as those which are properly drained, because where water is stagnant 

 manure does not decompose readily, nor does it exist in such a healthy 

 state to become food for plants as it does where land is drained. Where 

 there is air, manure decomposes faster, and is in better condition ; 

 hence on drained lands manure becomes more fertilising. 



