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AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF THE SOIL. 
NO. II.—ABOUT DRAINING. 
As we have before stated, next to getting 
a soil into the requisite state of fineness, 
that it may furnish a suitable bed or medium 
for the roots of plants, we consider under- 
draining the most important auxiliary to 
success in soil culture. We hope to make 
this matter so plain as to carry conviction 
to the minds of all who read these articles. 
But we shall be met at the outset, as well as 
further on, with the objection that “ it costs 
too much.” Let us therefore first inquire 
whether it will be likely to pay to expend 
ten, fifteen, or even thirty dollars upon a 
single acre, for it will in many cases cost 
the latter sum to thoroughly drain a single 
acre. 
Take as an illustration a farm midway 
between the East and the West, and worth 
in the market, say only $40 per acre. We 
will suppose an acre of this land with a 
slight manuring produces now an average 
crop of forty bushels of corn, worth one year 
with another, say 50 cents per bushel. The 
account with two acres will stand about 
thus : 
Interest on two acres, at 7 per cent. $5 60 
Taxes... 40 
Planting.,harrowing and manuring, at $6 per acre, 12 00 
Planting, hoeing and harvesting, at $6 per acre— 12 00 
Total.530 00 
80 bushels of corn at 50 cents. ■ • 40 00 
Profits on two acres.$10 00 
Net profit per acre. 5 00 
Now let us suppose that one acre be sold 
at the market price ($40), and the whole 
proceeds be added to the remaining acre, in 
such improvements as draining, subsoiling, 
&c. ; and suppose that by the improvement 
thus made the average yield of corn is raised 
to only 60 bushels per acre. How will the 
account then standi As the land will be 
worked even more easily after the improve¬ 
ments, none of the expenses per acre for 
cultivation will be increased, except a 
trifling addition for harvesting a larger crop. 
The account will then stand : 
Interest on one acre, costing $80, at 7 per cent.$5 60 
Taxes... 40 
Plowing, harrowing and manuring, as before. 6 00 
Planting, hoeing and harvesting. 6 00 
Total.$18 00 
60 bushels of corn at 50 cents. 30 00 
Net profit per acre.$12 00 
Here is one-fifth, or 20 per cent, more 
profit on one acre than on two above. This 
is below the true estimate. There are very 
few soils in the country on which the ave¬ 
rage yield cannot be doubled by such an 
outlay injudicious improvements. Accord¬ 
ing to these figures, 50 acres of the im¬ 
proved land will yield a profit of $600, 
while it would require 120 acres of the un¬ 
improved land to yield the same amount of 
profit. We say nothing of the increased 
cost of fencing the larger surface, nor of the 
additional care, &e., required. 
“ But,” says the incredulous reade , “this 
looks very well upon paper; to attain this 
end in practice is another thing.” Well, our 
aim is to show that just such improvements 
are not only practicable, but that to engage 
in them is just what three out of four of al 
the farmers in our country should do, and 
must do, if they will attain the highest suc¬ 
cess, or, in other words, cultivate their land 
to the greatest profit. And we will here re¬ 
mark, that precisely the same principles ap¬ 
ply to small areas as to large—to gardens as 
well as to farms. But we ask no one to take 
a mere ipse dixit —a bare assertion. Let us 
look carefully and candidly into the whys, 
the wherefores, and the modes of doubling 
the product of our farms without increasing 
the after cost per acre for cultivation. 
By a thoroughly under-drained plot of land, 
we understand one that has a set of open 
channels passing through it, from 2i to 4 
feet below its surface. These channels 
admit water into them throughout their 
whole length, and have outlets and a fall 
sufficient to carry off whatever runs into 
them. The channels or drains are placed 
near enough together, say 2 to 4 rods 
apart, to carry off all surplus water at any 
time falling upon the soil, or running into 
it from higher lands, and thus they keep 
the whole soil comparatively dry as low 
down as their bed (to 4 feet from the 
surface). And, lastly, the lower ends of 
them are always open, so that when they 
are not filled with running water, the air 
can enter freely, and passing along them, 
circulate up through the soil, and escape 
from the surface. 
Without stopping to inquire how to secure 
such channels or under-drains, of the best 
kind, and in the most economical manner, 
let U3 first inquire what will be their natu¬ 
ral, obvious effect upon a soil thus fitted out. 
1st. The soil will be kept free from stand¬ 
ing water, and will be ready to work much 
earlier in Spring. When the frost is out of 
the ground, the surplus water will at once 
be drawn off, and the plow can be started. 
As the work can begin a week or two earlier 
in the Spring, it will be less crowded, and 
less man and team force will be required to 
till a given number of acres. With the ab¬ 
sence of water, the soil will be warmed 
much sooner, and a week at least can be 
gained in planting corn, for example, which 
is very often enough to save it from an Au¬ 
tumnal frost, even if its growth were not 
more rapid on such a soil. The average 
gain of time upon at least three-fourths of 
farms, even those considered dry, will be 
equivalent to moving them from one hun¬ 
dred to two hundred miles southward. 
2nd. Winter crops, wheat, rye and grass, 
growing on a soil thus kept comparatively 
dry. will not be killed by frosts of Winter. 
Why? Dry solid bodies, like soils, do not 
greatly contract and expand in freezing, 
while water, or wet soils, do expand greatly. 
As we have stated previously, eight quarts 
of water, or eight quarts of wet soil, will ex¬ 
pand to nine quarts in freezing solid, while 
the expansion of the same amount of a merely 
moist soil is but slightly perceptible. It is 
this expansion and contraction of wet soils 
that breaks and tears the fibrous roots of 
wheat and grass, and Winter-kills them, or 
heaves them out of the ground. On the 
thoroughly drained soil, as described above, 
such effects will not be experienced. 
3d. A thoroughly drained soil, with the 
water channels open for the circulation of 
air, is actually damper, or more moist, in the 
hot, dry weather of Summer, than those not 
so prepared Why? For the same reason 
that the surface of a tumbler of cold water 
is covered with dampness on a dry, hot day. 
The air always contains some watery vapor, 
which is condensed upon a body colder than 
the air itself. This is the case with the 
tumbler of cold water. Now, as the soil is 
always colder than* the air, in adry,hot day, 
the air passing into the drains, and up 
through the soil, will give up its watery 
vapor and moisture to the cooler soil, just 
as it does to the cool surface of the tumbler. 
The water from this source alone is suffi¬ 
cient to sustain crops through the severest 
drouth. There will always be a free upward 
circulation of air from the drains. The 
sun’s rays heating the surface of the earth, 
will produce an upward current of air, just 
as surely as fire in a stove or chimney will 
cause the heated, rarified, lighter air to as¬ 
cend, producing a “draught.” In the drains, 
if they be deep, the air will not only ascend 
through the soil immediately above them, 
but it will spread out on each side, as the 
upward current is produced at every point, 
of the surface, and thus draws the air from 
the drains laterally through every point. 
We thus see that a thoroughly drained soil 
is not only dryer in wet weather, but is 
actually nioister during a drouth. 
4th. We showed, in a previous article, 
(see page 54, middle column,) that most soils, 
not exposed freely to air, contain more or 
less of poisonous materials, in the presence 
of which plant roots will not flourish. The 
clearing out of water and the admission of 
air in its place, in an underdrained soil, is a 
direct method of destroying these poisons. 
5th. In a soil thus freed from stagnant 
water, and from poisons, and rendered 
warmer, the roots of plants will go down 
much deeper, and spread wider, and not only 
be out of reach of drouth, but also, from their 
greater extent, draw a much larger amount 
of nutriment. 
6th. Manures are rendered more effective. 
When the lower soil is filled with standing 
water, much of that falling in the form of 
rain and snow runs off over and through 
the surface, carrying away large quantities 
of manure and vegetable matter. Witness 
the dark-colored streams during, and after a 
rain or thaw. Those muddy brooks and 
rivulets are loaded with rich manures. The 
Mississippi River annually carries and de- 
posites in the Gulf near its mouth, a small 
continent of dark, rich mud, gathered from 
the feeding rivulets all over the valley of 
the stream. Our brooks, and rills, and 
ditches, exhibit the same thing on a smaller 
scale. But in an underdrained field water 
sinks down into .the under channels, and 
flows out in a clear, limpid stream, like 
spring water. The soil strains or leaches 
out the fertilizing materials, and holds them 
stored for the growing crops. 
We will not stop to discuss the effects 
upon climate and health produced by thus 
draining a farm, or a number of them lying 
