Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1874-04-18

the roots of plants penetrate more deep
ly than the hoe or the surface piow,
and there are riches in the sub-soil
which will amply repay the labor of
loosening them up, and thus making
them available; that there are other
wants from the manure-heap than those
which can be seen, and that it will pay
to avoid exposure TO the weather, and
to active fermentation; that the water
on the surface and in the upper soil is
not the only water that does harm to
the land. Hence, the increasing use of
the subsoil plow, Of the covered ma
nure-pit, and of the deep under-drain.
In our opinion, the extension of the
practice of under-draining-of deep tile
draining-offers greater promise to the
farmers OF the older States than does
any or all other improvements OF the
century. Indeed, it is the keynote of
good farming on all lands that are not
naturally thoroughly drained: and nat
urally well-drained lands are neither
very frequent or usually very good.
Generally speaking, that which is most
susceptible of high cultivation, with
last and profitable results, is that which,
in its natural condition, Is underlaid by
a retentive subsoil, which holds water
until it is removed by the slow and
chilling process of evaporation. Such
land usually contains more of the in-
gradients that growing plants require
than do the lighter and looser sandy
soils. The difficulty with them is. that
they are SO water-logged, so chilled by
the evaporation of their water, so pasted
together by moisture, so baked into
clods by drought, so sealed against the
entrance of air, so unfavorable for the
healthful action of the SUMS heat and
for the needful fermentation of their
organic parts, that they are unfavora-
BILE to the termination of seeds, inhos-
pitable to tender rootlets, and ungener-
Gus of their hidden wealth.
So long as the needs Of the farmer re-
mained few these lands afforded him as
decent subsistence as he required; but
when the increasing prosperity of the
community makes necessities of what
had before been luxuries-his daugh-
tiers left home to work in the factory,
and his sons to gain living in more
promising %alks,-he himself must
either migrate to new lands, where no
primitive social requirements and a
more fertile soil would enable him to
maintain his relative position, or he
must be content to stand still and see
the world move on, leaving him behind
an old wheel in an old rut.
Thousands of good farms have been
abandoned, and thousands of tender
home associations have been broken up,
because wet land exhausted of its sur
face fertility would not provide for the
increasing demands of civilized life.
We often hear of the exhausted farms
of the Eastern States" Greater nom
sense was never uttered. There is not,
in all New England, single farm that
ever was decently fertile, that has not
to-day more productive capacity, ten
fold more, than has been taken from it
by the scratching cultivation by which
it has been exhausted. Many of these
farms need only deeper and more
thorough cultivation, judicious man
agement, and economical manuring, to
make them better than they ever were ;
of such farms it is not the purpose of
this article to speak; it refers more par
ticularly to the far more numerous ones,
which are unfertile because they are too
wet-farms which are full of the ele-
ments of fertility, but which are chiefly
devoted to the freezing, and thawing,
and stagnation. and evaporation of wa
ter-the feeble and precarious growth
of crops being only minor incident of
their yearly history.
Our long-entertained conviction that
the above statements are true, has been
confirmed by the reading of work en-
titled "Draining for Profit and Drain
ing for Health,'' recently written by
Col. Waring, the Engineer of the Drain
age of Central Park, who has made the
science and art of agricultural and sani-
tary draining speciality for years, and
who, in this book, states the results OF
his study and experience, and states
them so lucidiy and so convincingly,
that we wish that every occupier of wet
land might read it and take hope for the
future. 1t would do much to stem the
| t;1o of am; ;n,rot;op thot ia ramnyinr the
| flower of our agricultural population
and would inaugurate an era of i'm.
proved and intelligent farming, which
! is much to be desired.
| In the confidence which his observa'
ton of the effects of tile-draining ha;
inspired, he gives less attention to the
making of stone drains than many far
mers would consider desirable, but al
of his arguments will apply with les'
force perhaps) to these, as we'll, ant
the undoubted superiority and economy
os tiles are a sufficient justification o
the policy, to which he alludes as fol
lows:
ssTo our writing in advocacy of i'm
provements, of any kind, there is al
ways a temptation to throw tub to th'
popular whale, and to suggest SOM
makeshift by which q certain advantage
may be obtained at half-price. 1t is pro
posed in this essay to resist this tempta
tion, and to adhere to the rule tina
whatever is worth doing, is worth do
ing well,' in the belief that this apple
in no other department of industry will
more force than in the draining of land
whether for agricultural or for sanitar,
improvement. Therefore, it will not b
recommended that draining be ever
confined to the wettest lands only; that
in the pursuance OF penny-wisdom
drains be constructed with stones, o
brush. or boards; that the antiquate
horseshoe tiles be used because the
, cost him less money, or that it will, il
any case, be economical to make onl,
such drains as are necessary to remov
the water of large springs. The doc
trine herein advanced is, so far as drain
ing is applied at all, it should be done il
the most thorough and complete man
ner, and that it is better that, in com
mencing an improvement. single fiel
be really well drained, than that tn
, whole farm be half drained.
, 'Of course, there are some farms cha
suffer from too much water, which ar
not worth 6raininO at ureEpnt. man