Show DRAINAGE some of alio eliy alio li croper gnp the rainfall lit times is greatly in excess of tho wants of vegetation at others lunch short ol 01 alio llio demands of agriculture alio is how to preserve alic surplus in wet times to licup out in excessively dry tinier the surplus that fills on all the higher land rims with greater or less speed into the swamps and bogs loaded such movable vegetable matter as it amny have come in contact with in passing over tho surface it in ls way not only robs the soil of needed fertilizing substance but accumulates in swamps and sloughs a mass of vegetable matter which heated by the sun produces in abundance the very seeds of death and it may chance hat just at tho times when water and moisture arc most needed alic so swamps and sloughs will contain nothing but a foul of hillh that will make them peats in lie neighborhood would it not bo better to dig and dig deep for water than depend upon such sources oven though it might be necessary to tap tho fountains clial lio hidden in iho subterranean rocks the extra expense of such digging would bo more alian met by tho pro ducts of alio swamps anil waste places brought into cultivation by drainage from the gain to health and come linesa of the country in favor of drainage it may bo assumed first that the capacity of a given quantity of soil to absorb and retain water or the rainfall will depend upon its porosity or mellowness and alie absence of water or moisture therein second as corollary to the above that alio greater alio depth of aliis porosity alic greater the quantity of water that will be absorbed and retained by 11 given portion of the boil and the less in proportion will be tho evaporation from the suns libat thial that if at alio base of this bed of porous soil alio llio water has arco egress the soil will not moisture in of clial is necessary for I 1 healthy ilant growth fourth that if the rainfall is taken up by this acil of porous soil and the water to percolate through it a distance of three or four feet to an and then only the surplus or that which alo soil can not retain passes into alio drain lails water will not contribute largely toward making a alood conditions arc secured by thorough tile drainage and therefore such system of drainage docs nol I 1 tend to promote hoods nor diminish alie quantity of moi turu in the soil but ams the opposite eject alic friio theory of tilo drainage is that by it alic rainfall or alio pus amount ot it ia made to the soil just where ll 11 falls in thia tharo aio various advantages such as uniform distribution of moisture in the soil freedom from on hillsides hill sides non disturb ance of and securing directly to the soil and the plant food therein alio of such gases as aro carried in the and given out as it percolates through the soil if drain ago enables tho farmer to plant and sow earlier in spring and till liis lands better these two facts alono furnish an argument in its favor hard to answer lint also tho toil by furnishing egress to plus water by alio secured by alio of tho water through it and by promoting alio bruu circulation of tho atmo phero through tho boil and adding moisture in drouth T E in y y tribune tho foston fost on ico department wa lit W 2 post |