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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 thor ough 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 subsoil, within the reach of the roots of ordinary crops; in which there is not a free outlet at the bottom for all the water which it receives from the heavens, from adjoining land, or from springs; and which is more or less in the condition of standing in a great, water-tight box, with openings to let water in, but with no means for its escape, except by evaporation at the surface; or, having larger inlets than outlets, and being at times "water-logged," at least in its lower parts. The subsoil, to a great extent, consists of clay or other compact material, which is not impervious, in the sense in which india-rubber is impervious, (else it could not have become wet,) but which is suffi ciently so to prevent the free escape of water. The surface soil is of a lighter or more open character, because of the cultivation it has received, or of the decayed vegetable matter and the roots which it contains.

In such land the subsoil is wet,-almost constantly wet,and the falling rain, finding only the surface soil in a condition to receive it, soon fills this, and often more than fills it, and stands on the surface. After the rain, come wind and

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sun, to dry off the standing water,-to dry cut the free wa ter in the surface soil, and to drink up the water of the subsoil, which is slowly drawn from below. If no spring, or ooze, keep up the supply, and if no more rain fall, the subsoil may be dried to a considerable depth, cracking and gaping open, in wide fissures, as the clay loses its water of absorption, and shrinks. After the surface soil has become sufficiently dry, the land may be plowed, seeds will germinate, and plants will grow. If there be not too much rain during the season, nor too little, the crop may be a fair one, if the land be rich, a very good one. It is not impossible, nor even very uncommon, for such soils to produce largely, but they are always precarious. To the labor and expense of cultivation, which fairly earn a secure return, there is added the anxiety of chance; success is greatly dependent on the weather, and the weather may be bad. Heavy rains, after planting, may cause the seed to rot in the ground, or to germinate imperfectly; heavy rains during early growth may give an unnatural development, or a feeble character to the plants; later in the season, the want of sufficient rain may cause the crop to be parched by drought, for its roots, disliking the clammy subsoil below, will have extended within only a few inches of the surface, and are too subject to the action of the sun's heat; in harvest time, bad weather may delay the gathering until the crop is greatly injured, and fall and spring work must often be put off because of wet.

The above is no fancy sketch. Every farmer who culti vates a retentive soil will confess, that all of these incon veniences conspire, in the same season, to lessen his returus, with very damaging frequency; and nothing is more common than for him to qualify his calculations with the proviso, "if I have a good season." He prepares his grour plants his seed, cultivates the crop, "does his best,"thinks he does his best, that is, and trusts to Providence to send him good weather. Such farming is attended with

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too much uncertainty,-with too much luck,-to be sat isfactory; yet, so long as the soil remains in its undrained condition, the element of luck will continue to play a very important part in its cultivation, and bad luck will often play sad havoc with the year's accounts.

Land of this character is usually kept in grass, as long as it will bring paying crops, and is, not unfrequently, only available for pasture; but, both for hay and for pasture, it is still subject to the drawback of the uncertainty of the seasons, and in the best seasons it produces far less than it might if well drained.

The effect of this condition of the soil on the health of ani mals living on it, and on the health of persons living near it, is extremely unfavorable; the discussion of this branch of the question, however, is postponed to a later chapter.

Thus far, there have been considered only the effects of the undue moisture in the soil. The manner in which these effects are produced will be examined, in connection with the manner in which draining overcomes them,-reducing to the lowest possible proportion, that uncertainty which always attaches to human enterprises, and which is falsely supposed to belong especially to the cultivation of the soil.

Why is it that the farmer believes, why should any one believe, in these modern days, when the advancement of science has so simplified the industrial processes of the world, and thrown its light into so many corners, that the word "mystery" is hardly to be applied to any operation of nature, save to that which depends on the always mysterious Principle of Life,-when the effect of any combination of physical circumstances may be foretold, with almost unerring certainty,-why should we believe that the success of farming must, after all, depend mainly on chance? That an intelligent man should submit the success of his own patient efforts to the operation of "luck;" that he should deliberately bet his capital, his toil,

and his experience on having a good season, or a bad one,-this is not the least of the remaining mysteries. Some chance there must be in all things,-more in farming than in mechanics, no doubt; but it should be made to take the smallest possible place in our calculations, by a careful avoidance of every condition which may place our crops at the mercy of that most uncertain of all thingsthe weather; and especially should this be the case, when the very means for lessening the element of chance in our calculations are the best means for increasing our crops, even in the most favorable weather.

NOTE. (Third edition.) The investigations of the last few years have opened a new vista in the field of agricultural science. Many of our most important theories concerning the process by which the soil prepares manure and its own constituents for the use of plants, seem about to be revolutionized. What is described with so much confidence in the foregoing pages as the method of aeration, oxidation and chemical combination by which organic manures are developed into plant food and what is said of the conditions under which the changes take place, most easily and completely, is probably entirely wrong, as a matter of theory. There is hardly a doubt that the development of plant food from refuse organic matter of all kinds is very largely, if not almost entirely, the work of minute organisms known under the geueric term "bacteria," whose office it seems to be to break down the last vestige of organic character, and to reduce organic matters to their mineral elements. The bacterium of nitrification is obviously one of the most important aids to the preparation of organic plant food.

Fortunately, the conditions under which these organisms act and produce the effects which have so long been recognized in spite of our ignorance of the precise cause, are exactly the same as to aeration, moisture, and the absence of saturation as are above insisted on as necessary for the processes formerly supposed to do their work.

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