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large amount of water on those particles which, being lower and better sheltered from the sun's heat than the particles of the thin soil, are made cooler.

We have seen that even the most retentive soil,—the stiffest clay, is made porous by the repeated passage of water from the surface to the level of the drains, and that the ability to admit air, which plowing gives it, is maintained for a much longer time than if it were usually saturated with water which has no other means of escape than by evaporation at the surface. The power of dry soils to absorb moisture from the air may be seen by an examination of the following table of results obtained by Schuebler, who exposed 1,000 grains of dried soil of the various kinds named to the action of the air:

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The effect of draining in overcoming drought, by admitting atmospheric vapor will, of course, be very much increased if the land be thoroughly loosened by cultivation, and especially if the surface be kept in an open and mellow condition.

In addition to the moisture received from the air, as above described, water is, in a porous soil, drawn up from the wetter subsoil below, by the same attractive force which acts to wet the whole of a sponge of which only the lower part touches the water;-as a hard, dry, compact sponge will absorb water much less readily than one which is loose and open, so the hard clods, into which undrained clay is dried, drink up water much less freely than they will do after draining shall have made them more friable.

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The source of this underground moisture is the water table," the level of the soil below the influence of the

drains, and this should be so placed that, while its water will easily rise to a point occupied by the feeding roots of the crop, it should yield as little as possible for evaporation at the surface.

Another source of moisture, in summer, is the deposit of dew on the surface of the ground. The amount of this is very difficult to determine, and accurate American experiments on the subject are wanting. Of course the amount of dew is greater here than in England, where Dr. Dalton, a skillful examiner of atmospheric phenomena, estimates the annual deposit of dew to equal a depth of five inches, or about one-fifth of the rain-fall. Water thus deposited on the soil is absorbed more or less completely, in proportion to the porosity of the ground.

The extent to which plants will be affected by drought depends, other things being equal, on the depth to which they send their roots. If these lie near the surface, they will be parched by the heat of the sun. If they strike deeply into the damper subsoil, the sun will have less effect on the source from which they obtain their moisture. Nothing tends so much to deep rooting, as the thorough draining of the soil. If the free water be withdrawn to a considerable distance from the surface, plants,—even without the valuable aid of deep and subsoil plowing,will send their roots to great depths. Writers on this subject cite many instances in which the roots of ordinary crops "not mere hairs, but strong fibres, as large as packthread," sink to the depth of 4, 6, and in some instances 12 or 14 feet. Certain it is that, in a healthy, well aerated soil, any of the plants ordinarily cultivated in the garden or field will send their roots far below the parched surface soil; but if the subsoil is wet, cold, and soggy, at the time when the young crop is laying out its plan of future action, it will perforce accommodate its roots to the limited space which the comparatively dry surface soil affords.

It is well known among those who attend the meetings of the Farmers' Club of the American Institute, in New York, that the farm of Professor Mapes, near Newark, N. J., which maintains its wonderful fertility, year after year, without reference to wet or dry weather, has been rendered almost absolutely indifferent to the severest drought, by a course of cultivation which has been rendered possible only by under-draining. The lawns of the Central Park, which are a marvel of freshness, when the lands about the Park are burned brown, owe their vigor mainly to the complete drainage of the soil. What is true of these thoroughly cultivated lands, it is practicable to attain on all soils, which, from their compact condition, are now almost denuded of vegetation in dry seasons.

Porosity or Mellowness.-An open and mellow condition of the soil is always favorable for the growth of plants. They require heat, fresh air and moisture, to enable them to take up the materials on which they live, and by which they grow. We have seen that the heat of retentive soils is almost directly proportionate to the completeness with which their free water is removed by underground draining, and that, by reason of the increased facility with which air and water circulate within them, their heat is more evenly distributed among all those parts of the soil which are occupied by roots. The word moisture, in this connection, is used in contradistinction to wetness, and implies a condition of freshness and dampness,—not at all of saturation. In a saturated, a soaking-wet soil, every space between the particles is filled with water to the entire exclusion of the atmosphere, and in such a soil only aquatic plants will grow. In a dry soil, on the other hand, when the earth is contracted into clods and baked, almost as in an oven,—one of the most important conditions for growth being wanting,-nothing can thrive, save those plants which ask of the earth only an anchoring place, and seek their nourishment from the air. Both air

plants and water plants have their wisely assigned places in the economy of nature, and nature provides them with ample space for growth. Agriculture, however, is directed to the production of a class of plants very different from either of these,-to those which can only grow to their greatest perfection in a soil combining, not one or two only, but all three of the conditions named above. While they require heat, they cannot dispense with the moisture. which too great heat removes; while they require moisture, they cannot abide the entire exclusion of air, nor the dissipation of heat which too much water causes. The interior part of the pellets of a well pulverized soil should contain all the water that they can hold by their own absorptive power, just as the finer walls of a damp sponge hold it; while the spaces between these pellets, like the pores of the sponge, should be filled with air.

In such a soil, roots can extend in any direction, and to considerable depth, without being parched with thirst, or drowned in stagnant water, and, other things being equal, plants will grow to their greatest possible size, and all their tissues will be of the best possible texture. On rich land, which is maintained in this condition of porosity and mellowness, agriculture will produce its best results, and will encounter the fewest possible chances of failure. Of course, there are not many such soils to be found, and such absolute balance between warmth and moisture in the soil cannot be maintained at all times, and under all circumstances, but the more nearly it is maintained, the more nearly perfect will be the results of cultivation.

Chemical Action in the Soil.-Plants receive certain of their constituents from the soil, through their roots. The raw materials from which these constituents are obtained are the minerals of the soil, the manures which are artificially applied, water, and certain substances which are taken from the air by the absorptive action of the soil,

or are brought to it by rains, or by water flowing over the surface from other land.

The mineral matters, which constitute the ashes of plants, when burned, are not mere accidental impurities which happen to be carried into their roots in solution in the water which supplies the sap, although they vary in character and proportion with each change in the mineral composition of the soil. It is proven by chemical analysis, that the composition of the ashes, not only of different species of plants, but of different parts of the same plant, have distinctive characters, some being rich in phosphates, and others in silex; some in potash, and others in lime,—and that these characters are in a measure the same, in the same plants or parts of plants, without especial reference to the soil on which they grow. The minerals which form the ashes of plants, constitute but a very small part of the soil, and they are very sparsely distributed throughout the mass; existing in the interior of its particles, as well as upon their surfaces. As roots cannot penetrate to the interior of pebbles and compact particles of earth, in search of the food which they require, but can only take that which is exposed on their surfaces, and, as the oxydizing effect of atmospheric air is useful in preparing the crude minerals for assimilation, as well as in decomposing the particles in which they are bound up,—a process which is allied to the rusting of metals,—the more freely atmospheric air is allowed, or induced, to circulate among the inner portions of the soil, the more readily are its fertilizing parts made available for the use of roots. By no other process, is air made to enter so deeply, nor to circulate so readily in the soil, as by under-draining, and the deep cultivation which under-draining facilitates.

Of the manures which are applied to the land, those of a mineral character are affected by draining, in the same manner as the minerals which are native to the soil;

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