The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-12-17
DRAINAGE

A Branch Of the Art of Cultivation Not
Generally Understood.
A writer in the book "Cassel's Popu-
lar Gardening" discourses very sensi-
bly, upon the importance of drainage,
a discovery, he says, in the art of culti-
walton whose theory and practice are
as yet most imperfectly understood.
Most that is known on the subject, not
only by the general public, but even by
those who live upon and by the land,
is that drainage is a short and easy
method of laying wet land dry. This
is far less than half the truth. Other
portions of it may be stated thus:
drainage keeps land moist and warm,
and by setting or keeping the water it
contains, or receives, in motion, invests
it with solvent powers and nutritive
functions of the most valuable char.
acter. Water at rest-that is, stagnant
kills, by drowning out all the pro.
ductive force of even the best land.
Water in motion develops and aug.
ments the fertility of the very poorest
soils, while it unlocks and adds to the
food stores already existing in the
richest and best.
Cultivators of fields and gardens
alike have been too much in the habit
of looking upon water as a nuisance to
be rid of at any cost. Grasping the
broad fact that drainage had trans
formed some of the worst lands into
the best, they have run their drains
where they were not needed, and have
been vastly astonished at their failures.
Water that was in the process of being
gradually, but surely, drained off by
nature, through her myriad outlets into
the subsoil, carrying enrichment with
it at every stage of its journey, was
hurried off through new channels-the
into the nearest ditch or river,
and natures machinery for the amelio-
ration and enrichment of the land thus
rudely stopped. Almost the first step
to the comprehension of the true theo-
ry and practice of drainage is recogni-
ton of the fact that water in motion,
the free gift of nature, is the most
powerful and beneficent of all natural
forces, to be utilized to the uttermost.
1t is the cultivator's capital-sinews of
war-in the liberation and utilization
of the natural force of the soil, and
should, therefore, be skilfully used.
Like other capital, it is apt to run into
aggregates, accumulate into masses,
and the land drainer's object and aim
should be to effect its more equal
distribution. In very few localities
in this country is there really
much excess of water for cultural
purposes. The evil lies in its
condition, not its amount. Give it mo-
ton, and in not a few gardens, es.
pecially those devoted to the culture of
vegetables. the more water the better.
Nor is this to be wondered at, for water
is not only the builder up of vegetation,
but it also constitutes from eighty to
ninety per cent. of the materials-being
to a very large extent not only water,
but stone and mortar as well. But as
reasonably expect a house or mansion
to arise in the night-when the build
ers IRE fast asleep-as vegetation to
thri7e on water-logged land. In the
letter case the active agent is not only
asleep, but dead, and only drainage can
restore it to life, by setting it in motion
and marrying the water to its better
half, that other great natural life-giving,
constructive and solvent force. the air.
Link these together through our drains,
and set them out on their endless Jour-
ney of discovery and production, and
our gardens a hardly fail to be COW
cred with plenty, filled with fragrance
and adorned with beauty.
If all this be true, and it is, then the
true theory and practice of drainage
may be stated Havs~I 1t lays land dry;
it keeps it moist; it makes it warm; it
frees, distributes and adds to its wealth
or richness; it improves its texture; it
adds to its depth, and makes ito cultiva-
ton more easy and pleasant, as well as
more prof1tsble.-N 2. Tribune,