70 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 
Draining—Why—Where—How. 
(Continued from page 36.) 
WHY—'WHERE. 
Every cultivator should understand and ap¬ 
preciate the following well established facts, 
which are applicable to all soils that are not 
naturally drained by a porous subsoil. They 
wore in part referred to last month: 
1. Draining prevents the winter-killing of 
crops. It is the expansion of water in the soil, 
and not the expansion of the soil itself, which 
tears and destroys the roots of plants. 
2. Draining land prepares it for much earlier 
working in Spring, and causes it to remain dry 
and warm later in Autumn; it is therefore 
equivalent to lengthening the season ; and has 
the same effect as moving the land from one 
hundred to five hundred miles southward. 
3. Drained land can be worked much sooner 
after showers; crops are also less retarded by 
cold rains, and they therefore grow larger. 
4. Drains, by carrying off the water under¬ 
neath, prevent its evaporation from the surface. 
When water evaporates, even in the form of 
cold vapor, it carries off a large amount of heat 
in a latent or hidden state. Drained soils are 
always warmer and more congenial to plants. 
5. Most undrained lands remain saturated 
with water during half of the year, or from No¬ 
vember to May, and many soils are in this con¬ 
dition three-fourths of the time, if we include 
wet spells during Summer. But while the pores 
are already full of water, melting snows and 
falling rains run off over the swface , carrying 
with them into low lands, and into brooks and 
rivulets, a large amount of manures, or of vegeta¬ 
ble matter, and soluble mineral elements of 
soils. All the color of rivulets, brooks, and 
rivers, is given by these rich materials washed 
from the soil. When land is underdrained, the 
water soaks down through it; the soil filters out 
and retains these valuable materials, and only 
pure water runs away in the drains. For this 
reason draining is equivalent to manuring. 
6. “Two bodies can not occupy the same 
space at the same time.” If the pores of the 
soil are filled with moisture, air is kept out. 
Drain off the w r ater, and air will circulate more 
freely through it. If the drains at their outlets 
are left open, the air will pass along them and 
rise through the soil. This free circulation of 
the air is useful in many ways, thus : 
7. Ah- circulating in the ground oxydizes and 
destroys poisonous metallic salts which abound 
in every soil not exposed to air. Clover, for ex¬ 
ample, is a deep rooted plant, which flourishes 
only a year or two on most soils. The rea¬ 
son is, that when its roots enter the subsoil and 
take in the poisonous salts, the clover is literally 
drugged to death. Give it a deep, air-permeated 
soil, and it will grow without renewal for half a 
dozen or more years. This has been fully proved. 
8. Air decomposes manures, and other vege¬ 
table matter in the soil, and fits their elements 
to enter the roots to nourish the plants. 
9. Air carries into the soil more or less of am¬ 
monia, and carbonic acid, which act as nutri¬ 
ment or stimulants to the plants. Here (as in 
G) we see that draining is equivalent to manuring. 
10. Air, in passing from drains up through 
the cooler soil, parts with a considerable amount 
of moisture. The warmer the air, the more the 
concealed moisture it contains, and the greater 
the amount yielded to the cooler soil. The free 
circulation of air obtained by removing the 
water has, therefore, a direct tendency to make 
the soil more damp during a drouth. Corn and 
other crops growing on drained, deeply worked 
land, seldom, if ever, suffer from drouth. 
11. When warm rains fall upon a drained 
soil, they descend through it Into the drains, in¬ 
stead of running over the surface, and they car¬ 
ry in warmth , as well as ammonia and other use¬ 
ful gases, to the roots and increase their growth. 
12. Water in a soil causes it to bake or com¬ 
pact. If drained, even clay land will be more 
pulverulent, or crumbling; it can be much 
more readily worked, and it yields better crops. 
Several minor considerations might be added 
in favor of thorough draining, but are not the 
above amply sufficient to convince every one 
that it is of the highest value ? The roots of 
plants run deeper and spread further, in a con¬ 
genial, dry, pulverized soil, and they sustain a 
large growth above ground. Figures 1 and 2 
are fair illustrations of the difference in the size 
and vigor of plants when growing on a shallow 
soil, and on one deeply pulverized and made 
dry by draining. 
WHERE. 
A careful study of the advantages above de¬ 
tailed, will show that nearly all soils will be 
benefited more or less by draining. The rare 
exceptions are those cases where there is a 
substratum of gravel, or porous soil, having an 
outlet, and lying so inclined as to be as effectual 
in carrying off water as a series of underdrains. 
But in no case can there be a natural provision 
for the circulation of air, to afford the advan¬ 
tages named above (6 to 11). 
To ascertain what fields need draining most, 
dig a few holes two or three feet deep, at differ¬ 
ent points. If water stand in the bottom of 
any of these three or four days after a heavy 
rain fall, it is conclusive evidence that the soil 
will be benefited by draining. The more or 
less urgent need of draining, may be judged of 
from the rapidity with which water oozes in 
through the sides and bottoms of the holes, and 
the length of time that has intervened between 
the fall of rain and the examination. The a- 
mount of rain will also have an influence. If 
no water be found in the bottom of a hole three 
feet deep, say four days after a thorough soaking 
rain, there is no urgent necessity for immediate 
draining. Since the subsoil often varies greatly 
in the same field, it is well to sink a number of 
trial holes at different points. A good time to 
make observations of this kind is early in 
Spring, as it can thou he readily determined 
whether the ground remains saturated with 
water for a long time, or is soon diy. 
Another method is, to observe the condition 
of the surface during a moderate rain, and a 
few hours after. If the water soon runs over 
the surface, or the top soil remains wot for a 
day or so after the rain, we may know that the 
subsoil is already so saturated with water as to 
prevent its absorbing that which has fallen. 
Fig. 3 illustrates the formation of a large class 
of soils. Here we have a mass of porous soil, 
U, X, with irregular beds of clay, m, o , running 
through it. It will be seen that from a to b, and 
Fig. 3. 
from c to d, the surface will be kept dry, be¬ 
cause the water will rapidly flow down and off 
through the gravel. From b to c, and again from 
d to e, the clay beds under the surface will pre¬ 
vent the sinking of water, and draining is need¬ 
ed. These layers of different kinds of soil are 
generally discovered hy observing the sides of a 
well as it is being sunk. The different layers 
sometimes each extend for miles, and some¬ 
times but a few rods. 
Fig. 4 illustrates another arrangement which 
is by no means uncommon. Here are alternate 
beds of porous and compact soils. The surface 
from a to b, c to d, e to i , etc., will be dry; while 
from b to c, d to e, i to k, and from m to m, the 
surface rests upon an impervious clay which re¬ 
tains the water. These beds, also, are some¬ 
times of large extent, while a dozen or more of 
them sometimes occur in the same field. 
- - —©»——>-*- - • 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Benefit of Subsoiling—Examples. 
One effect of this practice is to render the 
ground in the Spring dry and warm, earlier than 
where it is not so treated. Instances of this have 
lain under the writer’s eye several years. 
A gentleman in this neighborhood, who was 
building up a new home with ample surround¬ 
ings of lawn and fruit gardens, was advised to 
subsoil the land for his young orchard. He did 
so. The adjoining land, devoted to lawn, was 
only plowed, but both were soon seeded down 
to grass. We have noticed for several 
years, that the young fruit orchard parts with its 
snow earlier in Spring, and becomes dry to the 
foot, earlier than the lawn. The grass shoots 
earliest there in the Spring, and grows most vig¬ 
orously in Summer. As the land is of the 
same quality in both cases, and the treatment 
in all other respects has been t he same, why 
should not these effects be charged to the 
subsoiling ? 
Hero is another illustration : Four years ago, 
we ran a drain three feet deep across a lawn, 
for a distance of sixty feet or more. The sub¬ 
soil was thrown back to cover the dm in pipe, 
the top soil replaced on the top, and the sod 
covered the whole as before. Yet, for some 
reason, the line of the drain is now perfectly ap¬ 
parent to every beholder, the grass being green¬ 
er and stronger along its track than anywhere 
else. Even in the midst of a severe drouth, and 
when the grass is shorn very close, that green 
fine is unmistakable. Will any doubter deny 
