Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1854-04-14
UNDERTAKING..

UNDEhDhAlNl
In our rambles about the country,
we have noticed thousands of acres
of wet, undrained lands and
many of them were annually mown
over for the scanty crop of wild,
sour grasses, brakes, pollypods, &C.,
that they yield, which, when gath
cred into the barn, as fodder, scarce
ly repay the expense Of getting.
These wet soils, generally, may,
at moderate expenditure of labor,
be made the most valuable and pro-
ductive portion of many of our
farms. II, in their natural wet state,
they are plowed and planted with
potatoes. or sown with oats, las is
sometimes the case,) the product
is usually poor. Sown with Eng
lish grass seed, they may yield a
tolerable crop, for two or three years;
but the wild grasses and brakes will
soon take their place. Ii is practi-
cally impossible to grow, success
fully, what we term good English
crops, upon soil thus saturated
with water, however rich it may be
in all the requisite ingredients of
plants and We know that many of
these water-logged soils, when
judiciously drained, are of the best
quality. But they have long rested
under the stigma of being poor,
heavy, cold lands Now it should
be known. that there is no such
thing, in the common acceptation of
words, as heavy, cold lands only
as they are rendered so by excess of
water, which becomes stagnant,
causing the formation Of acids,
preventing the admission into the
soil of air and warmth, which are
indispensable to the perfection of
the more useful kinds of plants.
To illustrate this, we quote from
Prof. Johnston I" When an open
pan of water is placed upon the fire,
it continues to acquire heat, till it
reaches the temperature of 212o
Fab. 1t then begins to boil, but
ceases to become hotter. Steam
passes off, and the water diminishes
in quantity. But while the vessel
upon the fire, the water
continues to receive heat from the
burning fuel, as it did before it
began to boil. But, since, as al
ready stated, it becomes no hotter,
the heat received from the fire must
be carried off by the steam.
"Now this is universally true.
Whenever water is converted into
steam, the ascending vapor carries
off much heat along with il. This
hea, is not missed, or its loss pre-
ceived, when the vapor or steam is
formed over the fire but let wafer
evaporate in the open air from a
stone, leaf, or field, and it must
take heat with it from these objects;
and the surface of the stone, or leaf,
or the field must become colder.
The stone or leaf also, must become
coolest, from which the largest
of vapor arises.
/" Now, let two adjoining fields
be wet or moist in different degrees
that which is wettest will almost at
all times give off the largest guam
tity of vapor, and will, therefore, be
the coolest. Let spring arrive, and
the genial sun will gently warm
the earth on the surface of one
while the water in the other will
swallow up the heating rays, and
cause them to re-ascend in the
watery vapor. Let summer come,
and while the soil in one field rises
al midday to perhaps 1909 Fab. or
that of the other may, in
ordinary seasons, rarely reach so or
80 and, in wet seasons, may
not even attain to this temperature.
What, then, is the cause of the
,SiuhosS anu po'Vi'y, tho hShichSoS
and uncertainty of produce on land
of the kind now alluded to' 1t is
the presence of too much water
The application of this merely rud-
imentary knowledge, will enable
farmers, Off they will but set about
it, to remove from many improva-
Bile spots the stigma of being poor
and cold an appellation hitherto
applied TO them, not because they
are by nature unproductive but be-
canse ignorance, or Incidence, or in
difference, has hitherto prevented
their natural capabilities from being
either appreciated or made availa-
Bile. What is the remedy A re-
noval of the excess of water. And
lowi By effectual drainage.n-
Journal of Agriculture saaT