AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
149 
name him as sound authority, untainted with 
the trickery of the trade, and in the study of 
whose pages you will come out “ a wiser, if 
not a better man.” We shall talk of other 
poultry matters hereafter. 
MECHANICAL PREPARATION OE THE SOIL. 
NO. IV—draining. 
[Continued from page 126.] 
Owing to the great diversity of arrange¬ 
ments found, in both surface and sub¬ 
soils, as illustrated on' page 126, it will be 
readily seen that no arbitrary or general 
rules can be given for deciding whether any 
particular soil needs draining or not. This 
can only be ascertained by a special examina¬ 
tion in every case, and this examination must 
usually be made by the cultivator. Be¬ 
cause the surface soil appears to be dry. it 
should not be at once concluded that it 
may not be profitably drained. The tests, 
given in the middle column, page 125, 
should be applied, keeping in mind the 
principles stated on page 101, and also on 
pages 124-5. 
Let us examine more particularly some of 
these general arrangements of soils. 
In this figure, x and u represent loamy 
or gravelly soils, supposed to be porous 
enough to allow water to settle rapidly 
away. Yet even here the clay beds, o and 
m, may be so near the surface as to prevent 
the escape of the water except by evapora¬ 
tion into the air. In such a case, it is evi¬ 
dent that but a few inches of the surface will 
be dry. Sinking a hole three or four feet, 
and finding it free from water two or three 
days after a soaking shower, will furnish the 
only proof that there is sufficient natural 
drainage. We wish it kept in mind that the 
sections of soil represented in all the cuts 
may be only a few feet or rods in extent, 
and they may each extend several miles. 
Every field upon your farm may have half a 
dozen alternations of wet and dry soil, or 
your whole domain may perchance lie 
wholly upon one of these plots. If you dig 
a well, the chances are that in going down 
fifteen to thirty feet you will pass through 
half a dozen varieties of loam, clay and 
gravel. If in a level country, the different 
beds of soil will most likely lie horizontal, 
though this may not be the case, for it not 
unfrequently happens that a level surface is 
found upon just such an arrangement of sub¬ 
soils as that shown in fig. 1 or in fig. 5. If 
in a rolling, hilly, or mountainous region, 
though on a flat plateau, or in a valley, the 
probability is that the strata or layers of 
soil are anything but level or uniform. It 
may be stated, however, that theie are very 
few flat or level sections of the country, in 
which large beds of clay are not found im¬ 
mediately below, or at. most a few feet be¬ 
low the surface, and when near the surface, 
they form an effectual barrier to the free 
descent of water. But the great majority of 
our farming lands are either rolling, or situ¬ 
ated upon the sides of valleys or mountains. 
Fig. 2. 
In figure 2, for example, we may suppose 
the distance from m to 2 to be two, three, 
five, or ten miles, while the depth of the 
hollow or valley may be but a few hundred 
feet. If your farm chances to lie in the val¬ 
ley somewhere between s and u, you have 
an open subsoil through which the water 
may sink down and run off to the left, per¬ 
haps to reappear in springs or swamps many 
miles distant. 
Here then, though in the lowest part of 
the valley you have comparatively dry land, 
while on either side of you, your neighbors 
located between r and s, and between v and 
u, are upon clay land from which the water 
must run over the surface until it finds a 
porous soil at u or s. The same will be the 
case with the farms located between n and 
0 , and between x and w. 
Now examine a farm located between 0 
and r. The rain falling between m and r, 
will sink down, leaving the surface dry, but 
it will be stopped by the clay bed between n 
and o, when it will ooze out at n (perhaps 
forming a spring at that point). It will 
gradually sink away from the surface, and 
the result will be that all through the sea¬ 
son, the upper portion of the surface will be 
kept wet or moist, while lower down the 
middle portion will be dry, and then at the 
lower part near r the water having been 
stopped by the clay between r and s will run 
or ooze out at r, forming another wet spot, 
and the surface between r and s, and a little 
below s, will be wet and cold at all seasons. 
These explanations show why it often hap¬ 
pens that there is a succession of wet and 
dry farms one above the other, right upon a 
hill side. There are multitudes of just such 
instances all over the country. Though the 
cause may not have been known, every one 
must have observed that there is a difference 
in the fertility of adjacent farms upon the 
same general slope. Let it be remembered 
that in the cut we have magnified the inclina¬ 
tion, and that the illustration holds good even 
when the distance between m and s is so 
great and the fall so gentle that it will hard¬ 
ly be noticed by the casual observer. All 
the illustrations will hold good if the descent 
from m to s be just enough to produce a grad¬ 
ual flow of water in the soil or in a running 
brook. 
But suppose the descent, be rapid, and the 
distance between m and s be so short that a 
single farm, or even a single field, cover the 
whole side of the valley, and there be but a 
few feet or rods between m and 0 , 0 and r, 
j or r and s. T 11 this case the same farm or 
field will exhibit an alternation of wet and 
dry soils, and the portions between n and 0 , 
and between r and s, will need artificial dry¬ 
ing or draining. 
The same reasoning as the above holds good 
in examining the sides of a mountain, hill, or 
rolling surface, as illustrated in the follow¬ 
ing figure: 
Fig. 3. 
Here the upper layer may be a bed of clay, 
gravel or sand. If sand it will drain itself, 
but the water will be stopped by the clay 
bed between b and c, when it will run out 
and over the surface, and sink down at c, 
and perhaps settle off to the right and come 
out upon the right side. Between c and d 
the soil will be naturally wet; between d 
and e dry, except at the upper part, near d. 
Between e and/it may be wet or dry, espe¬ 
cially near/, since the bed of clay shown 
just below/, and the rock k, may form a ba¬ 
sin to hold the water when it will escape at 
/, in the form of a spring, or perhaps ooze 
out. producing a wet spot or swamp. As 
described above, under fig. 2, if the distance 
between b and f be great, there may be a 
succession of wet and dry farms, or parts of 
farms, or, if the distance be short, a single 
farm or field may embrace all the varieties 
of soil shown, and even many more alterna¬ 
tions. 
That these successive beds of clay, sand, 
gravel and loam, actually exist, must have 
been observed by most persons who have 
seen a well dug, or an excavation made for 
any purpose. We frequently dig into the 
side of a hillock to get at beds of sand for 
building purposes, and often find this, or 
even smooth washed gravel, above, or below, 
or between beds of clay. Let us examine 
the next figure : 
Fig. 4. 
Here we have a gravelly or loamy soil, l, 
resting upon a clay basin, c, and below the clay 
another porous soil, p, which lies upon the 
rock, r. There are smaller beds of coarse 
gravel and of clay in each of the larger loam 
beds. The upper bed, l, may be of such 
depth and extent, and character, as to absorb 
most of the rain falling upon the surface, 
and return it gradually to the atmosphere. 
The bed, p, may be a water-bearing strata, 
extending far off to the right. The clay bed, 
c, will keep its water from ascending into l. 
If there chance to be a natural fissure or 
opening at s t through the clay, the water will 
perhaps flow through it, and produce a living 
