The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1897-01-01


timber lots and no underground.
Underdrainage.
In the Year Book of the Department
of Agriculture space is devoted to the
subject of drainage. In one part of the
report it says: A soil containing too
much water during the whole or con-
siderable part of the season should be
undetermined to draw off the excessive
amount of moisture. Most of our agri-
cultural crops do better in a soil con-
tanning from 80 to so per cent of the
amount of water which the soil would
contain if saturated. With less water,
crops suffer; with more, they suffer for
lack of air around their roots. Wheat
may be grown very successfully, and
may attain a perfectly normal develop
ment, in water culture, with it's roots
entirely immersed in a nutritive solu-
ton, provided the water is supplied
with air at frequent intervals, but it
will not grow in a stagnant, saturated
soil, not because there is too much
water, but because there is too little
air. A soil, therefore, that contains too
much water contains too little air, and
part of the water should be drawn of
through bitches or tile drains.
Centuries ago the Romans used to
overcome this trouble by planting the
crop on very high ridges or beds, often
eight or ten feet high and fully as
wide. In this way alleys were pro-
vided at frequent intervals to carry off
the surface water, and the greatest ex-
tent of surface was presented for the
drying out of the soil, while the roots
from the saturated subsoil. Storer
states that some Of these ridges are
still to be found in some localities in
Europe. They are used today in a
modified form in the cultivation Of the
Sea-Island cotton off the coast of South
Carolina, but are being gradually given
up as the practice of understanding is
introduced, which is cheaper in the end
and more effective. Tile drainage is
usually more effective in stiff clay soils
and in low bottom lands, but it is oc-
c%asionally beneficial i'll medium grades
of loan, or ven in light sandy soils.
It is practiced to a considerable extent
in the light sandy soil of the truck
area of the Atlantic s%eaboard, where
the question of a few days in the ripen-
ing Of the crop is an important factor.
Work of Rootlets.-By sowing seeds,
whereby millions of rootlets would pen
forth the potash, the lime, the sulphur,
the phosphorus and other chemicals,
which combined with the carbon and
nitrogen of the air, promote the growth
and sustain the life Of the trees or
plant there found, and to place over it
a perfect and complete shelter for the
double purpose Of protecting it from
the burning rays OF the sun, and for
supplying that wonderful laboratory
by which the nitrogen of the air is
converted into woody matter.
Begin Now.-1f you wish to have q
nice display OF flowers, plant hyacinths,
tulips, narcissus, ETC., now. Do not
wait till next spring when you see your
neighbours flower beds a mass of beal-
ty, and then imagine you can plant in
March and April and have the same
beautiful hyacinths or tulips as those
which were planted in the fall. They
peep through the ground when the
SNOW and frost leaves in our northern
states and in December and January In
the southern states.-Ex.