New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 13 
existence of a stored water supply within the soil from the surplus of 
the season, when evaporation is somewhat checked, or from the waters 
accumulated from surface or saturated flow. This reserve of water 
has received the name of water table, and as is the case with our lakes 
and ponds, fluctuates in level. Unlike these, however, it is water dis- 
tributed through soil, and may be called water of saturation, or in 
some cases, where bed rock is near the surface, water of capillarity, 
and is subject to exhaustion. This may be readily seen in wells, as 
we can observe the periodical increase or diminution, or even at times 
the disappearance of the water. This water table is hence of great 
consequence to the farmer, as furnishing the source of prevention or 
mitigation of droughts. When, however, this water table is too near 
the surface, we have present conditions unfavorable to the working 
of the land, and to plant growth, for agricultural plants cannot thrive 
with their roots in stagnant water. We may hence say of this water 
table as we do of fire, that it is a good servant but a bad master. 
Dkainage. 
This water table may be controlled through the process of draining. 
A series of tile drains furnish a succession of outlets which establish 
a line above which water of flow cannot pass. We hence have a depth 
of soil above the drain level which is freed from the washings of the 
water of the water table, and which is kept from the stagnation pro- 
duced by the action of water in excess; it hence retains and increases 
its power of capillary action, and draws regularly through this capil- 
larity from the stored waters, never abstracting in excess of the plant 
needs, and occasionally in proper soil and under proper conditions of 
soil treatment, never stinting the water supply to the plant. This 
ever upward movement of water, only intermittingly interrupted 
through percolating water of rainfalls, conserves soil fertility within 
itself, and even recovers soil fertility from the layers of soil subjected 
to the steeping of the reservoir water. These facts suggest a direc- 
tion as to the depth at which drains should be placed. A drain 
should not be so deeply located as to carry the water table 
beyond the power of capillarity to freely convey to the surface, but 
should be as deeply laid as consistent with this purpose of securing 
water movement to the surface. We observe, however, in this con- 
nection, that under some geological relations of soil, it becomes 
important to preserve stored water, as well as to remove the water 
from cultivated sections. 
