The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-08-18

verize them when dry: and a large
per cent. Of their fertility is sealed
up I'm clods. Neither the big clods
nor the little ones are of any use to
the crop. The crop has to live in the
little loose dirt that exists between
the clods, and the roots can with dif.
ficulty penetrate the subsoil A wet
season now ruins what little crop
there is in the land.
The gloomy prospect that I have
attempted to depict is one that has
come within the experience of all
who have had to cultivate clay soils.
When your land was in the condition
above described-hard, dry and
cracked-what would have been the
effect Of tile conduits laid deep below
the surface?
The water descending through the
cracks in the soil to the depth of the
drains, would have passed off through
these, and only enough of it would
have been left to moisten the mass
Of soil above the drains. The Jumps
of soil between the cracks would have
fallen apart, closing the cracks but
not cementing their walls, thus leav-
Ing permanent passages for the wa
ter. Successive seasons would have
broken the ground into smaller
cracks, and so on until you would
have had mellow soil extending
down to the level Of the drains.
This process, of melioration goes on
for long time after drainage has
been installed, and while 1t is seen
that the drains can not have their
full effect at first, in lowering the
subsoil water down to their level the
crops at once send their roots down
into the better drained soil. These
rot year after year leaving passages
In the soil filled by their decaying
mold. These small passages become
the receptacles of other manurial
matters washed into them by the
rains. So the parasite of the soil in
creases as time goes on, leaving moth
Ing to be desired in this respect in
what were once stiff clay soils.
OF course it is not to be under.
stood that clay soils, like light
sandy soils, can ever be put into
such condition as to be handled al
most Immediately after heavy rains.
Drainage affects the condition and
not the constituents of clay. The
texture of clay soils which enables
them to retain moisture and ma.
nurial matters and so become in time
the most productive of all soils, also
renders them the Nolis me Langere
among soils when wet.
Don't force your acts 'gainst Natures
will,
Though drained the land tits clay
land still. 49,
old English Rhyme.
TWO cuts in the same creek
bottom" that / have drained illus
trates very forcibly what 1 have Just
said relative to the melioration of
clay soils subsequent to drainage.
The soil Of these two cuts is the same,
the fields being part of the same clay
formation. One cut contains 5000
feet OF drains having but one outlet.
laid twelve years ago. The other
contains 1000 feet laid this spring be-
fore our recent prolonged rainy sell
and these also have but one outlet:
SO l have been able to compare easily
the volumes Of water delivered by
these two systems, and 1 can not say
that the older system has not dis
charged twenty-five times more wa
ter during the recent rains than the
new ones has, and I know that the
pipes of the new system are still
free.
Lest this may discourage the pros
pective drainer, I will say that the
outlet pipe Of the older system was
fully charged with water within a
year from the completion of the sys-
tenn, and I expect to find the new
drains working almost up to their
full capacity after the dry weather
Of next fall
Jesse G. Whitfield.
Demopolis, Ala.
In Southern Cultivator.