220 EXCESS OF WATER CONSIDERED. 



loose in their texture, but al the same time there are animated beings, the sea nettle for example, 

 in whose system the water is exceedingly great, consisting as it were of a sac of water, whose 

 wall has the tenuity of the spider's -web. The water is reduced to its minimum quantity in the 

 harder woods, as the ebony, mahogany, and other plants which grow in a torrid zone ; wood 

 too, which has grown slowly in a temperate or frigid zone, is hard and compact. The princi- 

 pal uses of water, then, are reduced to two, solution and dilution. It may be added, too, that 

 distension is another important use of water in the economy of living beings. 



EXCESS OF WATER CONSIDERED. 



When after a rain water stands upon the surface for twenty-four hours or more, the vegetation 

 of those places will differ from the surrounding parts. A coarse and thin growth of the useless 

 plants occupy the place of the valuable grasses or grains. The remedy for excess of surface 

 water is draining. It is scarcely necessary to state in detail, the mode by which this is ef- 

 fected ; it is more necessary to impress upon the mind of the farmer the importance of the project. 

 The clay lands are those which require this treatment ; and some clays are more impervious 

 than others ; some scarcely permitting the rain water to penetrate at all, and others slowly. 

 In the former case the standing water becomes green and filthy, and if extensive, its injurious 

 effects extend beyond the plants which grow there. This stagnant water seems to be injurious 

 rather than beneficial, for upon its margin, vegetation is less luxuriant than upon drier places. 

 Although putrescent animal matters may abound there, one of the principal effects of standing 

 water is to preserve a uniform but low temperature ; hence, certain coarse grasses and plants 

 which are fitted to such wet places, are the only ones which grow by them. The rationale of 

 the process is simply the evaporation which must take place, but which necessarily abstracts 

 caloric ; and the operation being prolonged, the temperature can not rise, in consequence of 

 the constant expenditure of caloric in changing the water into vapor. I have referred to one 

 instance or case where rain water is injurious, from its inability to penetrate into the soil. This 

 is a case which is entirely independent of the marshy condition, or from a springy condition 

 which occurs upon sloping ground. From these remarks we may recognize a state common 

 to each, which requires for its remedy one mode of treatment, viz. draining. These three con- 

 ditions vary principally in degree. Where water stands upon the surface for a few days, after 

 a rain, and evaporates into the atmosphere, the land may be tolerably productive ; and so when 

 the land is springy, it will produce grass, but generally it is unfit for cultivation or ploughing, 

 and the grass is of an inferior quality. It depends much upon the excess of moisture during 

 the season ; in marshy ground the produce is objectionable, and generally worthless, except 

 for certain kinds of timber. The remedy for each of these cases is one ; but it is expensive, and 

 the matter requires some calculation of cost before the cure is attempted : but the whole ques- 

 tion may be stated in dollars and cents. What is the present value of the land, estimating its 

 value by its present productiveness 1 Then the profits after the improvement. The expense 

 may be calculated also ; expense of ditching, of tile or of stone, and that of laying them down 

 in a substantial manner. 



