Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health | Page 5

The soil, to the entire depth occupied by
roots, which, with most cultivated plants is, in drained land, from two
to four feet, or even more, should be maintained, as nearly as possible,
in the condition represented in Fig. 3,--that is, the particles of soil
should hold water by attraction, (absorption,) and the spaces between
the particles should be filled with air. Soils which require drainage are
not in this condition. When they are not saturated with water, they are
generally dried into lumps and clods, which are almost as impenetrable
by roots as so many stones. The moisture which these clods contain is

not available to plants, and their surfaces are liable to be dried by the
too free circulation of air among the wide fissures between them. It is
also worthy of incidental remark, that the cracking of heavy soils,
shrinking by drought, is attended by the tearing asunder of the smaller
roots which may have penetrated them.
*The Injurious Effects of Standing Water in the Subsoil* may be best
explained in connection with the description of a soil which needs
under-draining. It would be tedious, and superfluous, to attempt to
detail the various geological formations and conditions which make the
soil unprofitably wet, and render draining necessary. Nor,--as this work
is intended as a hand-book for practical use,--is it deemed advisable to
introduce the geological charts and sections, which are so often
employed to illustrate the various sources of under-ground water;
interesting as they are to students of the theories of agriculture, and
important as the study is, their consideration here would consume space,
which it is desired to devote only to the reasons for, and the practice of,
thorough-draining.
To one writing in advocacy of improvements, of any kind, there is
always a temptation to throw a tub to the popular whale, and to suggest
some make-shift, by which a certain advantage may be obtained at
half-price. It is proposed in this essay to resist that temptation, and to
adhere to the rule that "whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well,"
in the belief that this rule applies in no other department of industry
with more force than in the draining of land, whether for agricultural or
for sanitary improvement. Therefore, it will not be recommended that
draining be ever confined to the wettest lands only; that, in the
pursuance of a penny-wisdom, drains be constructed with stones, or
brush, or boards; that the antiquated horse-shoe tiles be used, because
they cost less money; or that it will, in any case, be economical to make
only such drains as are necessary to remove the water of large springs.
The doctrine herein advanced is, that, so far as draining is applied at all,
it should be done in the most thorough and complete manner, and that it
is better that, in commencing this improvement, a single field be really
well drained, than that the whole farm be half drained.

Of course, there are some farms which suffer from too much water,
which are not worth draining at present; many more which, at the
present price of frontier lands, are only worth relieving of the water
which stands on the surface; and not a few on which the quantity of
stone to be removed suggests the propriety of making wide ditches, in
which to hide them, (using the ditches, incidentally, as drains). A
hand-book of draining is not needed by the owners of these farms; their
operations are simple, and they require no especial instruction for their
performance. This work is addressed especially to those who occupy
lands of sufficient value, from their proximity to market, to make it
cheaper to cultivate well, than to buy more land for the sake of getting a
larger return from poor cultivation. Wherever Indian corn is worth fifty
cents a bushel, on the farm, it will pay to thoroughly drain every acre of
land which needs draining. If, from want of capital, this cannot be done
at once, it is best to first drain a portion of the farm, doing the work
thoroughly well, and to apply the return from the improvement to its
extension over other portions afterward.
In pursuance of the foregoing declaration of principles, it is left to the
sagacity of the individual operator, to decide when the full effect
desired can be obtained, on particular lands, without applying the
regular system of depth and distance, which has been found sufficient
for the worst cases. The directions of this book will be confined to the
treatment of land which demands thorough work.
Such land is that which, at some time during the period of vegetation,
contains stagnant water, at least in its sub-soil, within the reach of the
roots of ordinary crops; in which there is not a free