THE CULTIVATOR. 
67 
A receipt for the cure of bots in horses, extracted from the Genesee 
Farmer, in the second number of the second volume of the Cultivator, 
I have no doubt saved the life of one of my horses. He was so far 
■gone with the disease, and enfeebled by the pain he endured, as to be 
unable to rise, and was pronounced beyond recovery by a number of 
persons present. I recollected this remedy, procured the ingredients 
and put them down him, in fifteen minutes repeated the dose, and in 
half an hour after, the horse got up and went to feeding, to the sur¬ 
prise of myself and all present. 
No other remedies were tried. 
The corn crop in this section wears an unfavorable aspect. By far 
the greater part planted has not germinated, owing to the drought 
which existed at the lime of planting; what little has made its appear¬ 
ance above ground, is immediately attacked by the grubs, which have 
made their appearance again this spring in great numbers. 
Permit me, before closing, to express my approbation of the Cultiva¬ 
tor, and the pleasure I take in perusing and reaping instruction from 
its pages. Each number more than returns to me the subscription 
price, in the knowledge I obtain from it. The two volumes I have 
had bound. I trust its patrons will universally adopt this course, and 
by this means preserve the work for future reference, and for the pe¬ 
rusal of their children. The cost of binding is but 37i cents, and it 
certainly would make a valuable acquisition to any farmer’s library. 
Respectfully yours, D. FULLERTON. 
Minisink, Orange Co. June 2d, 1836, 
EXTRACTS. 
THOROUGH DRAINING—INDICATIONS AND EFFECTS, IN THE GROWING 
CROP, OF STAGNANT SURFACE WATER-INFLUENCE OF SUBSOIL-EF¬ 
FECTS OF THOROUGH DRAINING ON CULTIVATED CROPS—MODE OF 
THOROUGH DRAINING. 
From the Edinburgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 
Thorough draining may be defined as that kind which removes surface 
water from subsoils, by placing shallow , though substantially constructed 
drains in parallel lines, at such distances and in such a position, as tho¬ 
roughly to dry the soil without injury to their structure. According to 
the spirit of this definition, thorough draining admits of drains being 
filled with tiles, stones or other appropriate materials, provided they 
are substantially constructed; it admits forms of drains of any shape, 
whether wedge-shaped or otherwise, provided they are placed in pa¬ 
rallel lines and not cut too deep; it admits the placing of drains in any 
position, whether up and down the slope, or along its face in a diagonal 
direction, provided the inclination given prevents the destruction of 
their structure by the force of running water; and it admits the run¬ 
ning of drains in any place, and at any distance from each other, pro¬ 
vided they be so near to one another that the water can have easy ac¬ 
cess to them from every direction. Thorough draining acts as an ab¬ 
sorbent like a sponge, presenting in all directions numerous channels 
to imbibe the superabundant moisture. No sooner does rain or melted 
snow percolate through the ploughed soil, than thorough, draining of¬ 
fers a safe 1 conductor to receive it and convey it away. 
But another indispensable inquiry remains to be instituted, before we 
can clearly arrive at the final conclusion, that draining is the speediest 
means of fertilizing the soil. We have to ascertain that state of the 
soil in which draining shows its greatest efficacy as a fertilizer of soil. 
Most people accustomed to field labor, imagine that they can easily in¬ 
dicate the state of the soil which requires draining, and the exact places 
in which drains should be formed. Many egregious mistakes have 
thus been committed in draining, and particularly in thorough draining. 
Any one is competent to observe where a spring bursts out to the day, 
and where the soil is partially dark coloured when ploughed, and where 
it is in a pulpy state at the wettest place; and any one can detect the 
well-eye bursting out its waters, near the bottom of a bank of natural 
pasture, surrounded with a verdant margin, and originating a train of 
those plants which luxuriate most vigorously in spring water, such as 
the florin, some species of poa, and the water cress;. but a palpable er¬ 
ror would be committed, were any one, ignorant of their nature, to at¬ 
tempt to cut off the sources of such springs. To accomplish that ef¬ 
fectually, requires a previous knowledge of the nature of the alluvial 
and harder rocks, among which springs generally originate, and espe¬ 
cially a competent knowledge of those in the particular locality. Al¬ 
though springs clearly indicate an obvious necessity for draining, 
which, if effectually executed, will always recompense the cost, stagnant 
water under arable soil is not so easily detected. The evidence of its 
existence is not so much pathognomonic as symptomatic, to use still 
the phraseology of medicine. The crops commonly grown are most 
correctly symptomatic of stagnant water. Through its baneful influ¬ 
ence the straw of white crops is short, small, fine, soft, easily broken 
from shortness, not brittleness of fibre, and stained as if with rain. 
The grain is small, and although at times well enough filled, has al¬ 
ways a puny and palish appearance. Cutting grass is also small, fine, 
not long, and much inclined to abundance of flowers, and of course to 
seed, which are both small. The hay is always light for its bulk. Pas- 
ture grass is short, stiff, not thick set nor fine, and of a blueish grass 
green colour. It does not fatten live-stock well, particularly in tallow. 
Sheep thrive worse than cattle on it, their wool being light, and to ap- 
pearance dead. Little milk and butter are derived from it. Turnips 
are small, hard and fibrous, and their leaves grow nearly erect, and are 
often margined with red. Potatoes are small in the stem and short, 
the tubers being small, watery when boiled, and the crop never very 
abundant. The symptoms from the land itself are, that it is apt to get 
foul with couch-grass, which, when hand-picked, cannot be gathered 
free from soil, bui is easily broken, fine and very adhesive. This weed 
renders the ploughing and harrowing of such land, particularly the har¬ 
rowing, very tedious, and when both operations are repeated till the 
soil is free of it, the soil by that time becomes too much pulverized and 
deaf. The furrow-slices of land rendered thus deaf cannot stand up on 
their own feet, but soon clap down, become obliterated, and assume a 
wasted and hungry appearance. The dead roots of stubble, when 
ploughed after harvest, do not adhere firmly to the soil, but are easily 
rubbed out by the coulter and mould-board, and carried forward in 
bundles before the coulter. The symptoms attendant on the applica¬ 
tion of extraneous matter to land in that state are, that farm-yard dung, 
whether fermented or fresh, does not quickly incorporate with the soil. 
It remains in an inert-state, lumpy, and moulders away into a blackened 
mass. Bone-dust do&^iot quickly incorporate with the land, therefore 
does not quickly decompose in it, nor does it ever impart that greasi¬ 
ness to the soil which is its valuable characteristic as a manure. Lime 
does not quickly mix with it, losing its caustic properties, and soon be¬ 
coming like mortar, and of course effete. Hedges which are planted in 
it become stinted in growth, and covered with moss, and most of the 
kinds of forest trees are soon in the same plight. Plants indicative of 
dry soil never grow in it, but give place to those which thrive in moist 
earth, such as the horse-tail, dead-nettle, sprats, some species of the 
rush, thistle, &c. Besides these obvious symptoms, there are others 
more latent, which are only obvious after having been detected; such 
as the ground when felt in walking over or being trodden on. It is dif¬ 
ficult to describe this sense of feeling by words. The ground feels less 
firm, more likely to slip under the foot by the arable portion sinking 
into or sliding upon the subsoil, and in some cases it will sound hollow 
on being jumped on. In such suspicious circumstances, we have fre¬ 
quently seen drains release large quantities of stagnant water which 
had lain concealed and encased among beds of impervious clay. In 
short, when we come to examine thus minutely into the state of land, 
we will find a very small portion of it indeed that can naturally claim 
exemption from draining. 
In considering this enumeration of evils, and the catalogue is a long 
one, it may be observed that most, if not all of them, are symptomatic 
of bad land, as well as that under the influence of stagnant surface wa¬ 
ter. The observation is quite correct. But it should be borne in mind 
that stagnant water turns good land into bad, and that bad land is so 
chiefly because it is permitted to remain injured by stagnant water. It 
is true that all sorts of land are not alike in their nature, nor alike in 
quality—some are naturally good and some naturally bad—but in all 
the natural classes of soils which are easily affected by draining, and 
they are the most numerous, the good of them are good, because they 
are naturally drained, being composed of, and resting on pervious ma¬ 
terials ; and the bad are bad, because they rest on retentive subsoils; 
and the more retentive subsoils are, the worse the soils which rest upon 
them. Soils, therefore, are not naturally so dissimilar in quality for the 
purpose of husbandry, as that they are rendered so by being naturally 
ilaced on dissimilar subsoils. Land, if of considerable depth, may, 
lowever, be very good, although it rest on a retentive subsoil; but the 
good soil below the reach of the plough forms, in that case, the subsoil, 
and not the retentive matter, which may be at a considerable distance 
below it. The best natural soil would become bad, if placed on a reten¬ 
tive subsoil. It is the nature of the subsoil, therefore, which stamps the 
quality on the soil, for the purposes of agriculture, for the natural qua¬ 
lity of soil is, in all events, much enhanced by the art of husbandry. 
Pure carse clays may seem to form an exception to these remarks, but 
attention to their nature, as they are really affected by stagnant water, 
will show that even they form no exception. Pure carse clay soils are 
generally formed in deep beds or in masses several feet in thickness, 
the pure clay itself forming the subsoil to the pure clay which is sub¬ 
jected to the plough. When water finds its way through arable soil, it 
descends to the subsoil, which, when impervious, it cannot penetrate, 
but slides down both sides of the ridges to the open furrows. But the 
arable part of clay soil can only be penetrated by water immediately 
after it has been ploughed; for soon after ploughing, it consolidates, 
and the water then can only run along the impervious surface to the 
furrows; so that pure clay soils can never be said to stand over stag¬ 
nant water: and should drains be placed in the furrows and open cuts 
formed in the hollows elsewhere on the surface, no surface water could 
long remain on them. Could a rounded form be given to the subsoil 
