174 [Assembly 



DRAINING AND UNDERDRAINING. 



[Communicated by S. Van Wyck.] 



No laud is fitted for agricultural purposes generally, that is 

 for producing the grasses and grains healthily and abundantly, if 

 there is a surplus of water lying on the surface or near it, in the 

 season of germination , and growth of the plants . Th i s may be ow- 

 ing to the stiff tenacious character of the surface soil, or from 

 springs beneath it, or exuding to the surface. In lands which are 

 usually called uplands, and which lie pretty high, and a portion of 

 them descending more or less, these in our county, are rarely trou- 

 bled with superfluous water. Valleys sometimes without proper 

 outlets, or where these are obstructed, the water flows back on to the 

 upper parts, and renders them too wet for plants ; this may be 

 remedied in most cases by making new outlets or cleaning out 

 the old ones. Marshes, morasses, or swamps, also are frequent- 

 ly inundated with water most of the season, this water is apt to 

 be fed by springs underneath the surface of such morass grounds, 

 it is caused in a great degree by the drain of the higher lands, 

 and sometimes its swampy character is owing partly to both. In 

 our county where we have such a quantity of hot sun, that one 

 day in any of the summer months with us, will probably exhale 

 as much moisture from the earth on an average of seven years 

 together as the sun does in Great Britain, in eight or ten days. 

 If the rains that fall from the clouds are nearly equal in tlie two 

 counties, the dews from the cooler and more temperate climate 

 of Great Britain are heavier and more frequent, and keep the 

 earth much cooler. There is more alumina or clay in the soil of 

 the latter county generally, than Avith us, this, most geological 

 accounts confirm. This with the superabundance of moisture 

 from the causes mentioned, makes the soil much more retentive 

 of moisture, both on the surface and a considerable deptlr be- 

 low. If clay lays below the suface some distance, it increases 

 the water in certain localities and holds it like a dish. This in 

 very wet seasons gets full and runs over and in places exudes to 

 the surface, and keeps it too wet and soft for stock, or teams to 

 move upon. These poach and cut it up, and render it uneven, 

 unsightly, and useless for most farming purposes. Neither the 



