W/v'=''iW 



1i 



r^^^^rn^^^:-' 



^^ymp^^l 



W: 





^- 



j^^,<!^ffi»f?^»||||g!S5!»^.u«B»l«p,'^jr 



THE ILLIIS^OIS FARMER. 



99 



try, and facilities for drainage arc abundant, 

 yet not one farmer in a hundred has ever 

 seen a tile, or has any drainage, than an open 

 ditch running through a swamp that would 

 otherwise be covered witli water for a part of 

 the year. ':, ,; 



There are multitudes of men, intelligent 

 lipon other topics, that do not even under- 

 stand the position of the advocates of thor- 

 ough drainage, and either wilfully or other- 

 wise misrepresent them. They do not com- 

 prehend the office which drainage performs 

 for the land, and represent the laud as need- 

 ing irrigation and mulching, as if drainage 

 necessarily stood in opposition to tlie?e priK-- 

 tices. 



A common misconception of tlic position of 

 the advocates of drainage is, to represent 

 them as holding that all lands ought to be 

 drained. "We believe this position is really 

 held by no writer entitled to be considered 

 an authority in agricultural matters. There 

 are lands more perfectly undrained by nature, 

 than they even can by art. They are wholly 

 underlaid with cobble stones or loose sand 

 and gravel, so the water goes through them 

 as easily as through a sieve. There are grav- 

 elly knolls and hills, where the water never 

 can stand within many feet upon thcsurfuce. 

 No man in his senses, would ever think of 

 laying drains upon the light sandy soils about 

 New Haven, Orange, or upon Long Island. 

 All such lauds want, is two or three feet of 

 good surface soil, and plenty ofmanure. But 

 there is comparatively littlelandof this char- 

 acter in this State, or in New England. By 

 far the larger part of our land shows the ne- 

 cessity of drainage, in the fact that it is im- 

 possible to work it early in the Spring, on 

 account of its tenacity. Water will stand in 

 any hole you dig two or three feet deep, show- 

 ing that everything below is as tight as a bot- 

 tle. 



A veiy common misconception is that no 

 land needs drainage that is dry in a dry time. 

 Says a writer in ihe New England Furniet; 

 who signs himself "S. T.,"— "With these 

 views, and in one of those dry spells that occur 

 almost every summer, when the broad leaves 

 of that salamander plant, our Indian corn, roll 

 themselves into flabby strings, and when 

 wells, twenty, thirty and forty feet deep give 

 out entirely, is it not rather more refreshing 

 than instructive to retire into a cool library, 

 and read, as we may, from a portly volume, 

 backed in golden letters, "The Ameiican 



Farmer's ," the timely assurance that 



the first care of the farmer, that ou which the 

 success of his future crops almost entirely 

 depends, is the removal of unnecessary sup- 

 plies of water?" 



And yet this very land, so parched in 

 August, may huve been wet and heavy all 

 through April and May, so that it could not 

 be plowed or planted. Had the soil been 

 drained of its unnecessary supplies of water, 

 and been made loose and friable, so that crops 

 could have been put in, in season, the roots 

 would have struck down so deep, that they 

 would have found moisture enough to sustain 

 the crops through any ordinary drought. 

 The roots die of thirst in the three or four 

 Inches of surface soil that lies above the pan. 

 The most of the water that tails upon such a 

 soil is evaporated, as from a basin. Drainage 

 would knock out the bottom of the pau and 



let the vratcr work both ways — downward in 

 a wet lime, and upward in a drought. The 

 same writer also argues again.st drainage fi-om 

 the fact, that on most land, mulching is pro- 

 fitable : "My own experience and that of oth- 

 ers who have published the results of their 

 trials, show that mulching benefits vegetation 

 chiefly by keeping the surfiice of the earth 

 moist and loose in our hot, dry summerf^. 

 As straws, afloat in the air, show the 

 direction (jf the wind, so stra^/s, spread 

 upon the groui.d, may show the direction 

 farmers should take, in their cflbrts to pro- 

 mote the growth of their crops. The princi- 

 ple, then, that I regard as conclusively de- 

 monstrated, by the effects f)f mulching is, that 

 a deficiency ofmoisture.notanexccss, is what 

 American fanners have to gufirdagainstjand 

 the inference?, a very natui^al one, is thatthey 

 should govern themselves accordingly." 



The inference the writer would dj-aw, is 

 manifostly this, that there is no need of drain- 

 age to get rid of a superfluit}' of water. His 

 reasoning betrays his ignorance of the office 

 Avh'ch drainage performs. Neither his prin- 

 ciple, nor that which he controverts is the 

 true one, in regard to our soil and climate. 

 The true position is this, that we have too 

 much moisture for our crops earl}' in the sea- 

 son, and too little in mid-summerand autumn, 

 as a rule. He can see that drainasxe remedies 

 an excess of water. lie docs not See that it 

 remedies dromrht. It makes the whole mass 

 of drained earth like the wick in the tube of 

 his lamp, which finds no difiiculty in draw- 

 ing its supplies of oil or burniiigfluied from 

 several inches below the flame, until the sup- 

 ply is exhausted. 



We advocate draining for the same reason 

 that we do mulching. It keeps the surface 

 of the soil moist and cool in our hot dry sum- 

 mers. JNIulching does good on undrained 

 land. It is not needed ou that which is drain- 

 ed, except in case of new planted trees. 



We must follow this interesting writer a 

 little further, and ventilate his philosphy. 

 "In the next place, 1 object to the draining 

 that it is exhaustive. It adds nothing to the 

 soil. It is not a fertilizer. No one will dis- 

 pute these positions. In a long list of benefits 

 ascribed to thoi'ough drainage, on the last 

 page of the monthly Farmer for 185G is the 

 following : 'It hastens the decay of roots and 

 ether vegetable matter in the soil ! A state- 

 ment far more eneouraa-ins: to the race of 

 farm skinners than to those .who wish to im- 

 prove the soil. This sii::uhiv benefit of 

 draining suggests another thought. By ha.s- 

 tening the decay ot vegetable matter in the 

 soil, an apparent improvement in the crops 

 may be ascribed to drainage, which should be 

 credited to the gradual improvement of the 

 soil, consequent on this very decu}' of its vege- 

 table matter. Especially, in a highly manur- 

 ed and long cultivated country like that of 

 England, a lowering of the water line from 

 within a few inches of the surface, to a depth 

 of several feet, might be followed for a time 

 by results that could not be anticipated in a 

 poorer soil, or in one whose saturated sub-soil 

 has always been much farther below tliC sur- 

 mce of the earth." 



The writer does not seem to know, that no 

 plant can grow in any soil, without taking 

 something from it, and so leaving it poorer. 

 Crops are made, in part, by the decompsition 



of the animal and vcgetalile matter in theeoil. 

 Nomattcr wluitha.steus the decom230sifion and 

 absorption of the vcgetxible matter in the soil, 

 it makes it poorer, after the crop is gathered 

 than before. This objection lies as strongly 

 against manuring or mulching, yea against 

 cultivation even, as against drainage. 



But we object to the axioms in this gentle- 

 mfjn's philosophy. Drainage does add some- 

 thing to the soil, and increases its fertility. 

 In a Avoll drained soil, every .^how^r adds to it 

 son.ething of iUiimoriia, which would otherwise 

 run off' upon the surfixce. In the spring, 

 tliesc shovrtv.-; are of much warmer tempara- 

 ture than the soil, and, of course they increase 

 its heat, just as fui down as the drains 

 allow them to penetrate. This is an element 

 of fcrtility in the cir'"-umstances under whicli 

 it reauhes the soil. Besides (his, drainage 

 admits the atmosphere into the soil, and un- 

 der its influence, and that of the rain, there 

 is a change favorable to the fertility of the 

 soil all the while going ou. Not only is all 

 vegetable matter decomposed, but the miner- 

 als that enter into the «sh of plants, alid up- 

 on which thcytlioy are as dependent for their 

 growth, as upon air and moisture- The pot- 

 ash and salts, about wliich this writer shows 

 to much so'.icitiidc, are released from their 

 b:)ndage, and brought within the reach of the 

 roots of the plant. The soil is indeed made 

 poorer, by what the plants take up, but the 

 salts -are manuf:i<:-tUred its fast as the plants 

 need them, and tiie stdj-soil is so well stocked 

 with the raw material, that thero is no imme- 

 uiate danger of exhaustion. 



The idea that our land needs irrigation ra- 

 ther than drainage is frecjuently advanced. 

 But drainiugs only incroa.ses tlie beneficial 

 effects of irrigation. Water not only wants 

 to flows over the surface of the soil, but 

 to penetvatc it, as far as the roots of plauts. 

 But even without irrigation, as we have 

 seen, plants arc much better supplied with 

 water in a draiiied f^oil, than they would be 

 in an undrained soil, with occasional extra 

 waterings. The moLsture is more eqaally 

 distributed, and thi roots of plauts have a 

 much wider and deeper range, from which to 

 gather supplies. ^Ve still go in for the tile 

 drain. 



-••►- 



Varieties of Food. 



Tmly is it said there is no aecounting for 

 tate.s — we know of some of the strange ano- 

 malies, which the tastes of dilTerent nation.; 

 [)resent, but their utter discordaucy is all but 

 aj-jpaliing vrhen they are all, or anauy of them 

 presented at once, lload the following, and 

 then imagine yourself at a table with a bill 

 of fare presenting all the luxuries and varie- 

 ties mcntioueJ. (^Te copj' from an adcleess 

 of E. F. Sherman, given before the Middle- 

 sex North Agricultural Society, ^ilass.) : 



The comparative vuluoof animal a;nd vege- 

 table food has been a frequent source of dis- 

 cussion and contention. Men who have eon- 

 tended for aneyclusively vegetable diet, have 

 been, in general, men of weak stomach.^, if 

 not of weak heads; dyspeptics and grumblers, 

 who, having sulTered long from sour stomachs, 

 have become soured tbroughout. But they 

 have in vain attempted tosupi)ort their theo- 

 ries against the deductions of the anatomist, 



.1- s . 



