1858. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
179 
Draining Deepens the Soil. 
The effects of thorough draining in deepening the 
soil, are readily seen in a comparison of the charac¬ 
teristics of those wet and retentive, with those either 
naturally or artificially of a porous nature. 
All heavy soils must be shallow from the influence 
of stagnant water—of water which saturates the sur¬ 
face, not being able to pass away by filtration. Every 
fall of water gives a mortar-like consistency to such a 
soil, and as the moisture passes off by the slow process 
of evaporation, it becomes baked and brick-like, in¬ 
stead of light and friable. If plowed when wet, it is 
entirely unfit for the growth of crops ; if stirred when 
dry, it turns up in clods and lumps; in either case, it 
is only after much labor that any finely pulverized 
earth is obtained to support and nourish vegetable 
growth, and an inferior crop is ever the result. Satu¬ 
ration without jUtration, .kills the productive power 
of any soil —makes it hard, shallow and sterile, how¬ 
ever rich in every clement of fertility it may be, when 
differently situated in the single circumstance of drain¬ 
age. 
Porous or well-drained soils, on the contrary, never 
retain, even if they become saturated with water 
The surplus moisture filtrates at once into the drains, 
leaving the surface loose and friable. Such a soil can 
be plowed at any seasonable time, and turns up mellow 
earth, readily fitted as a seed-bed for any crop. Such 
a soil invites the roots of plants down, offering them 
food instead of a stone-like earth, and every year 
deepens the area of vegetable growth, until the full 
depth is reached to which it has been drained. 
That draining deepens the soil, we will bring a sin¬ 
gle instance to show—one which confirms every point 
stated above. It is condensed from a letter from that 
pioneer drainer and pioneer of good farmers, John 
Johnston, near Geneva, N. Y., and was published in 
the Country Gentleman of Jan. 19, 1854. He says: 
“ Last spring I concluded to plow a clayey field, 
containing forty acres, only once for wheat, and that 
after harvest. Previous to draining it was one of my 
wettest fields, and in dry weather, even in April and 
May, was very hard to plow, often having to get the 
coulters and shares sharpened every day, when we used 
wrought-iron shares. Owing to the great drought be¬ 
fore, during, and after harvest, I got a large plow made, 
so that I could put two or more yokes of cattle and a 
pair of horses to it if necessary. Immediately after 
harvest we started for the field, oxen and drivers, plow¬ 
men and horses j and besides, new shares on the plows, 
took other new shares along, expecting to be obliged 
to change every day. 
When we got to the field, I had one man put a pair 
of horses before the large plow, and try to open the 
land with a shallow furrow. He went seventy rods 
away and back without even a stop, except when the 
clover choked the plow. I then put the plow down to 
eight inches, and after one round, to nearly ten, and 
he went around without any trouble. His furrow was 
over nine inches deep, and laid as perfect as could be. 
I then had one yoke of oxen put behind my smallest 
horses, and a pair of horses before each of my other 
plows, and they plowed the field with perfect ease, only 
changing shares twice. 
“ Although the field was undoubtedly plowed at the 
rate of nine inches deep, yet the clover roots -went 
deeper, and the land plowed up as mellow as any loam ; 
whereas, had it not been drained, it would have broke 
up in lumps as large as the heads of horses or oxen. 
A few years ago, a neighbor broke up a field about the 
same season, and similar land, but not drained, and 
after cultivating, rolling and harrowing, he had to em¬ 
ploy men and mallets to break the lumps, before he 
could get mould to cover the seed; and after all did 
not get the third of a crop of either wheat or straw. 
My wheat looks as well as any I ever saw, and I doubt 
not it will be a good crop.” 
Those farmers, and they are not few, who have had 
experience in the cultivation of clayey soils when dry, 
or in any state, will not wonder that Mr. Johnston ex¬ 
claimed, on finding this great change in the depth and 
friability of this clay bed,—“ I never was more agree¬ 
ably surprised in my life—in fact, had my men been 
plowing in gold dust, as they do in California, I should 
have been no more pleased.” This great change was 
the simple effect of thorough drainage—the soil, no 
longer compelled to remain saturated with water, lost 
its brick and mortar character, and became a live, or 
at least an active and productive soil, ready to reward 
the labor of the farmer. 
-#-*—•- 
The Problems of the Farm. 
Winter, the night of the year, when Nature is most 
quiet and unattractive, is appropriately called the 
work-day or harvest-time of the philosophic student: 
but to the intelligent practical farmer, his text books 
open their rarest and profoundest lessons with the ad¬ 
vent of spring. In winter he may pursue the study of 
abstract questions and sciences, but in spring he en¬ 
gages in the practical application of the knowlege al¬ 
ready made his own, and of all which he can obtain 
having a bearing upon the subjects in which he is in¬ 
terested. Thought is united with action, and a new 
importance attaches to the investigations which are 
most appropriately and successfully commenced at this 
time. 
The necessary conditions to fertility of the soil, 
and the adaptation of different soils by appropriate 
methods of management to the production of different 
crops, are problems among the most important which 
can occupy the attention of the farmer ; and, in some 
form and degree, every cultivator of the soil gives his 
thoughts to their solution. He considers the question 
of preparation in its relation to productiveness, me¬ 
chanically—in regard to plowing, subsoiling, harrow¬ 
ing, and cultivating—and chemically, as it concerns 
the necessary manures and the atmospheric influences 
affecting the soil. These conditions are studied and 
compared with those of the crop desirable to produce 
from the soil—the connection between these and the 
natural world—also the adaptation to the requirements 
of the farm and market, all enter into the statement 
from which the problem is to be worked out. 
These questions we say, in some form and degree, 
receive the attention of the farmer. But it is too sel¬ 
dom given in that systematic form necessry to tho¬ 
roughness—to the extent or with that depth of atten¬ 
tion which these subjects demand. Complex in char¬ 
acter, they extend through every department of scien¬ 
tific research, furnishing an ample field for the exercise 
of every mental, as well as physical faculty. No pur¬ 
suit or employment so calls into exercise all the powers 
of humanity as that of Agriculture. We mean by 
this, that none will so well secure and preserve the 
equal development of the whole man as will this when 
entered into and carried out in its true spirit and sig¬ 
nification. 
1 Studies for the farmer ! There is no lack of subjects 
