Weekly American. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1858-1858, 1858-02-20
It H e FA r M E r.
TIIOROUGH DRAINAGE AND IRRI

u "A u n
THOROUGH DRAINAGE AND IRRI
glisl,,se fgf CATION r gaeBd iais1
In the first volume ofthe monthly New Eng
land Farmer, page IA, may be found the fol-
lowing history and definition Of the term
Thorough Draining, credited to Robert Jar
dine: a 1pts q rh gen8 as rti
Draining, as understood thirty years ago
in England, meant merely the making of chan
nels to carry off surface water, and under
ground drains to dry Dogs or cut off springs.
II has now an entirely different meaning in
the agricultural world. Mr. Smith, Of Dean
ston, near Edinburgh, was among the first to
practice and explain Thorough Draining, as il
is called. His system Isl that all land requires
to be drained that the depth of loan, Of soil,
containing the food efplants, seldom erceeds
a fen inches, resting on q su6soik on pan Of
clay, or hard gravel, saturated NTH soater.
BY making drains from two and a half to Eve
feet in depth, at every twenty or thirty feet the
land becomes dry, air takes fireplace Of water"
&C., &c. HI I. ..r' is'5 S. asll.,
Portions of this extract to which direct the
attention Of the advocates Of Thorough Drain
ing in this country are put in italics.a sasr4
Here We have the English idea Of soil and
subsoil. Add to this the humidity Of the Eng
fish climate, and the necessity Of the herculean
task Of making drains from two and half
to five feet in depth, at every twenty Or thirty
feet" all over the farm, and the necessity, too,
Of the enormously thick and heavy hob nailed
shoes which are worn by English laborers, are
natural inferences. a i8b ~ gs iaoaRst4i.1
But must the English practice Of Thorough
Draining and hob-naiI shoes be followed in the
United Statesa Is draining with tiles q the
next great step to be taken in the march Of i'm
provement on all our old farms 2 in New Eng
landa Will any one who ever did 50 much at
farming as to dig q hole in the ground in this
country, adopt ther language Of Mr.. Smith,
which | have put in italic letters, when he
draws up a description of the soil and the sub
soil Through which he penetrated Or will he In
Ter from the dry sand and the loose gravel which
here generally lies from five to fifty feet over
any thing saturated with water" that the
American farmer must cxpend twice the value
Of hishrm to rid himself Of the g surplus fuid?p
May he rather adopt the language used by
Prof Nash, in his address before the HAnpdep
Society, in 1864, and say: "The Almighty
has done this work so well that the owners
need expend nothing with the hope Of doing it
better?" ii aE gh sin. 1
The difference between the moisture Of both
air and soil in this country and England is adj
mitted to be great. An English laborer of my ac-
quaintance, after making his "pile" in this
country, returned home with the intention Of
spending his days with the friends and amid
the scenes Of bis boyhood. In a short time
however, he was back again and at his old
tasks in New England. He said that he found
he could not stand the climate there. The
ground was SO damp that it seemed to strike
through his shoes as soon as he stepped ashore,
and gave him the rheumatism, SO that he was
sick and lame all the time be was at home.
e Prof Nash, in the address from which have
already quoted, says: "Soils there, from the
most clayey, up through the. various loans, to
the most sandy, are more compact than those
vegetation hourishes best on raised beds, huge
hills, or sharp ridges, and the farmer is com
PEELED to guard at every point against the effects
of q superabundance of water, as he is taught
by experience that moisture is his great
enemy IS 59i8s tt.s-s sid, div
IF In this country as generalrule, tits drought
not moisture, that Injuries our crops We know
more of the evils Of digging from fifty to one
hundred feet to find water enough to fill our
tea kettles, than we do of those which attend
ssubsoil Of clay, or hard gravel, saturated with
water, but few inches from the surface.
England therefore, may have too much mois-
turs; we often have too little. The roots of
her vegetables may die Of dropsy; ours perish
by drought In her heavy soils, manures may
waterlog and sink Leyond the reach Of plants;
on our sandy plains and under our tropical
sun, they probably vanish into ain" English
farms may perhaps need draining; American
farms need irrigation. ii'snp igbTa e ~
Our climate and our soil are so materially
different from those of England, that we must
regard it as q misfortune that our theoretical
agriculture comes to us directly from that coun-
try. This fact goes far TO account for the often
lamented unpopnlarity of book farming, among
us A large proportion of the volumes in our
rapidly increasing Observation-Disclosures, though
published in America, are founded ON Eng
lish facts. il not mere reprints of books
written for the fast anchored and fog-steeped
Isle, where turnips grow, and corn does not. IS