486 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November,. 
Underdraining Dries Wet Land and 
Dampens Dry Land. 
This may seem an absurd statement to 
many who have not read or thought upon 
the matter. Such will be interested in the 
following explanation. It is a scientific fact 
that in proportion as common air becomes 
warmer it absorbs water, and so combines 
with it as to cause the water to disappear and 
become insensible. Surround a room con¬ 
taining cold atmosphere with such tight walls 
or sheathing that there can be no ingress or 
egress of air. Now heat the air 20 or 30 de¬ 
grees, or more, by steam or hot water pipes 
passing through the room, or by radiators, 
and it will become so dry and eager for more 
moisture that it will gather it from the sur¬ 
face of the body and from the lungs, giving 
one a disagreeable, parched sensation. If the 
room be closed when it is filled with warm * 
air, as this cools down it will give, out mois¬ 
ture before concealed, and everything in the 
room will become damp. On very cold days 
or nights, the inside air, cooled by the window 
glass, deposits so much moisture that it forms 
a film of ice, often 
amounting to a 
cake along the bot¬ 
tom of the panes. 
A tumbler or pitch¬ 
er of ice-water cools 
the air in contact 
with its outer sur¬ 
face so much as to 
cause it to deposit 
a large amount of 
moisture upon the 
surface, giving it the appearance of sweat¬ 
ing, though in fact no water passes from 
the inside to the outside. If a large amount 
of warm air, moving as wind, meets and 
mingles with a small current of cold air, the 
temperature of the whole is reduced, the con¬ 
cealed water is given - out, the particles of 
watery vapors unite, and when enough of 
them get together to intercept the sunlight we 
have fogs and mist. The clouds do not come 
from any distant water depository, but are 
formed from the water in the previously 
clear atmosphere above us, but which was 
previously so combined with the air as to be 
entirely invisible. 
Apply the above explanation to under¬ 
drains. After more 
rain falls than the 
ground can readily 
absorb, the excess set¬ 
tles into the drains 
and flows away, leav¬ 
ing the soil in a suita¬ 
ble condition for the 
roots of growing 
plants. But in a dry 
time, the air upon the 
surface is heated by Fig _ <y_ A PIPE DEAIN . 
the sun’s rays that are 
absorbed by the top layer of soil. This heated 
air expands, and rises just as warm air rises 
from the heated stove. At the same time 
warm air enters the open ends of drains, 
passes along them, and constantly ascends 
through the soil to take the place of the heated 
air rising from the surface. But all the soil 
below an inch or two of the surface is cooler 
than the air that enters the pipes, and this 
being cooled deposits its previously concealed 
vapor, so that, in fact, it moistens the ground. 
We can thus understand why underdraining 
not only carries off excess of water, but also 
dampens the soil when it is dry. Stirring a 
dry soil with hoes or cultivators in hot 
weather brings hot, moisture-laden air in 
contact with soil colder than itself, and it 
Fig. 3. —WARM AIR RISING FROM DRAIN PIPES. 
deposits moisture upon it.—Another im¬ 
portant effect of such drains or air passages 
is that the air thus passing through the soil 
oxidizes portions of the plant food in it, both 
mineral and organic, and thus increasing the 
fertility. It also often destroys poisonous 
substances in the soil, like the proto-salts of 
iron which the access of air changes to the 
innocuous per-oxide. 
Propagandisin on the Farm. 
The mutual aid secured by wisely con¬ 
ducted guilds and associations keeps alive 
the enthusiasm of the body, and makes 
more skillful mechanics and more successful 
professional men. There is a great deficiency 
of this kind of public spirit among the farming 
class, the most numerous and the most inde¬ 
pendent among our fifty millions of people. 
There is no jealousy of intrusion from out¬ 
siders, either from abroad or at home, among 
them. Farmers from Europe come by the 
ship-load, some of them with large capital, 
and there are no fences put up around the 
farms or prairies, to prevent professional 
men, mechanics, young men from all classes 
at home, from becoming farmers. Excepting 
the work of speculators in our large cities, 
there is nothing to create an artificial price 
for the products of the farm. There is a fair 
field for the industry and skillful labor of 
every cultivator. There is perhaps no calling 
in which industry and educated brain power 
has a fairer reward than in husbandry. 
Better farmers are the great want of our call¬ 
ing in all parts of our country, and there 
ought to be public spirit enough in the body 
to secure a wiser direction and better reward 
of the manual labor on our farms. Much 
has been accomplished in the last thirty years, 
and in some sections we find, at intervals, in¬ 
telligent husbandry, and ample rewards. 
But much more remains to be done, so that 
the industry of the farm in every section may 
be more uniformly rewarded. There are many 
forces now at work that may be greatly helped 
and intensified by the farmers themselves. 
Farmers’ clubs have done much in the very 
limited districts where they have been kept 
up to aid good husbandly. With a few intel¬ 
ligent cultivators for leaders, a club can be 
organized in almost every township in the 
older States. Farmers’ wives and daughters 
can be made very efficient helpers in the 
management of these institutions, and the 
social ends to be gained by them are hardly 
less important than the improvement of hus- 
Fig. 1.— A STONE DRAIN. 
bandry. The State, county, and local agri¬ 
cultural societies, with their annual exhibi¬ 
tions, are important factors in this good work, 
in spite of their occasional perversion to 
horse-racing and gambling. Good citizens 
should see that these evils are eliminated from 
the fairs. The agricultural schools and col¬ 
leges are winning their way to popular favor, 
and correcting the once common prejudice 
against book farming. The belief is now 
quite common in our halls of legislation that 
educated brains have a fair field upon the 
farm, and it is possible to get State aid for Agri¬ 
cultural Schools and Experiment Stations. 
Reliable manures are in the market that bear 
the test of the laboratory and the soil. Last, 
but not least among these forces, is the agri¬ 
cultural press. Every man who reads and 
profits by a good journal should see that his 
neighbors share his blessing. There is no 
easier, more effective way of illustrating 
the propagandism of the farm. 
Keeping Squashes and Sweet Potatoes. 
While most of the products of the garden, 
the common roots, celery, cabbages, etc., need 
to be kept at a low temperature during win¬ 
ter, these tropical plants, the Squash and 
Sweet Potato, would perish under like con¬ 
ditions. In the harvesting, and in all subse¬ 
quent handling, Sweet Potatoes and Squashes 
should be treated as carefully as if they were 
choice fruit, as a bruise will cause decay.. 
Those who raise either largely for market, 
have a proper place for their storage, usually 
a building fitted for the purpoge. This build¬ 
ing has a stove by which the temperature 
can be kept constantly at 60°. Squashes are 
placed upon shelves, so arranged, that they 
may be readily inspected, and any that show 
signs of decay removed before they infect 
others. Sweet Potatoes are stored in bins 
holding a few barrels each, and so placed that 
air can freely circulate among them. Pro¬ 
vision in both houses is made for ventilation 
when needed. Those who have only small 
crops can not have special buildings, but may 
preserve them by imitating the same condi¬ 
tions. The best success we ever had with 
small lots of Sweet Potatoes was to put them 
in such boxes as were at hand ; these were 
placed under the kitchen table, or in other 
available parts of the room and, as an ex¬ 
periment, a part of them were kept until 
spring. We have also had excellent results 
with Squashes by placing those to be kept 
the longest upon the top shelves of a warm 
kitchen closet. A cellar, unless very warm 
and dry, is a poor place for Squashes. Place 
them elsewhere when you can do so. 
Evergreens for Hedges. _ Several 
have inquired about these. The usual method 
is, in localities where they are abundant, to 
collect the natural seedlings from the woods. 
Indeed, some nurserymen send to a distance 
for the seedlings, finding it cheaper to do 
this than to raise them from the seed. The 
kinds principally used for hedges are Arbor 
Vitae and Hemlock. Young plants of these,, 
about a foot high, are gathered in spring. 
They are set closely in nursery rows, and 
shaded by a temporary screen or shelter cov¬ 
ered with brush. Some will die. but those 
which survive the first summer may be set 
in the hedge row with prospect of success- 
