Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health | Page 2

THE PUBLIC HEALTH. INDEX
CHAPTER I.
- LAND TO BE DRAINED AND THE REASONS WHY.
Land which requires draining hangs out a sign of its condition, more or
less clear, according to its circumstances, but always unmistakable to
the practiced eye. Sometimes it is the broad banner of standing water,
or dark, wet streaks in plowed land, when all should be dry and of even
color; sometimes only a fluttering rag of distress in curling corn, or
wide-cracking clay, or feeble, spindling, shivering grain, which has
survived a precarious winter, on the ice-stilts that have stretched its
crown above a wet soil; sometimes the quarantine flag of rank growth
and dank miasmatic fogs.
To recognize these indications is the first office of the drainer; the
second, to remove the causes from which they arise.
If a rule could be adopted which would cover the varied circumstances
of different soils, it would be somewhat as follows: All lands, of
whatever texture or kind, in which the spaces between the particles of
soil are filled with water, (whether from rain or from springs,) within
less than four feet of the surface of the ground, except during and
immediately after heavy rains, require draining.
Of course, the particles of the soil cannot be made dry, nor should they
be; but, although they should be moist themselves, they should be
surrounded with air, not with water. To illustrate this: suppose that

water be poured into a barrel filled with chips of wood until it runs over
at the top. The spaces between the chips will be filled with water, and
the chips themselves will absorb enough to become thoroughly
wet;--this represents the worst condition of a wet soil. If an opening be
made at the bottom of the barrel, the water which fills the spaces
between the chips will be drawn off, and its place will be taken by air,
while the chips themselves will remain wet from the water which they
hold by absorption. A drain at the bottom of a wet field draws away the
water from the free spaces between its particles, and its place is taken
by air, while the particles hold, by attraction, the moisture necessary to
a healthy condition of the soil.
There are vast areas of land in this country which do not need draining.
The whole range of sands, gravels, light loams and moulds allow water
to pass freely through them, and are sufficiently drained by nature,
provided, they are as open at the bottom as throughout the mass. A
sieve filled with gravel will drain perfectly; a basin filled with the same
gravel will not drain at all. More than this, a sieve filled with the stiffest
clay, if not "puddled,"(1) will drain completely, and so will heavy clay
soils on porous and well drained subsoils. Money expended in draining
such lands as do not require the operation is, of course, wasted; and
when there is doubt as to the requirement, tests should be made before
the outlay for so costly work is encountered.
There is, on the other hand, much land which only by
thorough-draining can be rendered profitable for cultivation, or
healthful for residence, and very much more, described as "ordinarily
dry land," which draining would greatly improve in both productive
value and salubrity.
*The Surface Indications* of the necessity for draining are various.
Those of actual swamps need no description; those of land in
cultivation are more or less evident at different seasons, and require
more or less care in their examination, according to the circumstances
under which they are manifested.
If a plowed field show, over a part or the whole of its surface, a
constant appearance of dampness, indicating that, as fast as water is

dried out from its upper parts, more is forced up from below, so that
after a rain it is much longer than other lands in assuming the light
color of dry earth, it unmistakably needs draining.
A pit, sunk to the depth of three or four feet in the earth, may collect
water at its bottom, shortly after a rain;--this is a sure sign of the need
of draining.
All tests of the condition of land as to water,--such as trial pits,
etc.,--should be made, when practicable, during the wet spring weather,
or at a time when the springs and brooks are running full. If there be
much water in the soil, even at such times, it needs draining.
If the water of heavy rains stands for some time on the surface, or if
water collects in the furrow while plowing, draining is necessary to
bring the land to its full fertility.
Other indications may be observed in dry weather;--wide cracks in the
soil are caused by the drying of clays, which, by previous soaking, have
been