Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health | Page 3

pasted together; the curling of corn often indicates that in its early
growth it has been prevented, by a wet subsoil, from sending down its
roots below the reach of the sun's heat, where it would find, even in the
dryest weather, sufficient moisture for a healthy growth; any severe
effect of drought, except on poor sands and gravels, may be presumed
to result from the same cause; and a certain wiryness of grass, together
with a mossy or mouldy appearance of the ground, also indicate
excessive moisture during some period of growth. The effects of
drought are, of course, sometimes manifested on soils which do not
require draining,--such as those poor gravels, which, from sheer
poverty, do not enable plants to form vigorous and penetrating roots;
but any soil of ordinary richness, which contains a fair amount of clay,
will withstand even a severe drought, without great injury to its crop, if
it is thoroughly drained, and is kept loose at its surface.
Poor crops are, when the cultivation of the soil is reasonably good,
caused either by inherent poverty of the land, or by too great moisture
during the season of early growth. Which of these causes has operated
in a particular case may be easily known. Manure will correct the

difficulty in the former case, but in the latter there is no real remedy
short of such a system of drainage as will thoroughly relieve the soil of
its surplus water.
*The Sources of the Water* in the soil are various. Either it falls
directly upon the land as rain; rises into it from underlying springs; or
reaches it through, or over, adjacent land.
The rain water belongs to the field on which it falls, and it would be an
advantage if it could all be made to pass down through the first three or
four feet of the soil, and be removed from below. Every drop of it is
freighted with fertilizing matters washed out from the air, and in its
descent through the ground, these are given up for the use of plants;
and it performs other important work among the vegetable and mineral
parts of the soil.
The spring water does not belong to the field,--not a drop of it,--and it
ought not to be allowed to show itself within the reach of the roots of
ordinary plants. It has fallen on other land, and, presumably, has there
done its appointed work, and ought not to be allowed to convert our
soil into a mere outlet passage for its removal.
The ooze water,--that which soaks out from adjoining land,--is subject
to all the objections which hold against spring water, and should be
rigidly excluded.
But the surface water which comes over the surface of higher ground in
the vicinity, should be allowed every opportunity, which is consistent
with good husbandry, to work its slow course over our soil,--not to run
in such streams as will cut away the surface, nor in such quantities as to
make the ground inconveniently wet, but to spread itself in beneficent
irrigation, and to deposit the fertilizing matters which it contains, then
to descend through a well-drained subsoil, to a free outlet.
From whatever source the water comes, it cannot remain stagnant in
any soil without permanent injury to its fertility.
*The Objection to too much Water in the Soil* will be understood from

the following explanation of the process of germination, (sprouting,)
and growth. Other grave reasons why it is injurious will be treated in
their proper order.
The first growth of the embryo plant, (in the seed,) is merely a change
of form and position of the material which the seed itself contains. It
requires none of the elements of the soil, and would, under the same
conditions, take place as well in moist saw-dust as in the richest mold.
The conditions required are, the exclusion of light; a certain degree of
heat; and the presence of atmospheric air, and moisture. Any material
which, without entirely excluding the air, will shade the seed from the
light, yield the necessary amount of moisture, and allow the
accumulation of the requisite heat, will favor the chemical changes
which, under these circumstances, take place in the living seed. In
proportion as the heat is reduced by the chilling effect of evaporation,
and as atmospheric air is excluded, will the germination of the seed be
retarded; and, in case of complete saturation for a long time, absolute
decay will ensue, and the germ will die.
The accompanying illustrations, (Figures 1, 2 and 3,) from the
"Minutes of Information" on Drainage, submitted by the General Board
of Health to the British Parliament in 1852, represent the different
conditions of the soil as to moisture, and the effect of these conditions
on the germination of