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Show One Can a of Unprodactfvepea Science Is the best ally of agriculture, agricul-ture, as has been frequently demon strated. A case in point is an examination exam-ination into the cause of unproductiveness unproductive-ness in some of the so-called "black soils" of Indiana. In central ant northern Indiana therS are black humus .soils known as "bogus." In good, many cases these were found in places that had formerly ' been th beds of ponds or else were onci marshes nearly always covered wit water... The water disappeared lon . ago, leaving the land in a condition that, made it possible to work it ' It was asserted by the unskilled and popularly believed that these landi contained alkali to a degree that made ' it: impossible to grow upon them any kind of -crop. Scientists went to work to ascertain the real facts. A chemical chem-ical analysis was made and showed that the soli had none of the char- uLicnaui( ui amaii bull. some OI me land was plowed and mixed with kainit and cut straw. This certainly improved the drainage, and crops began be-gan to grow. In short, it was found that drainage was the key to the situation: sit-uation: Further investigation and experiment ex-periment demonstrated that if a system sys-tem of drainage were put in to tap the water-bearing gravel underlying "the humus' 'soil and to lower the- water . . level to at least 40 inches, the cause of the unproductiveness would be removed, re-moved, and a permanent improvement would result. .Thus -the real difficulty was found to bevthe high permanent water level: -- . -V In some. of the soils examined tile had been, laid at the usual depth In the humus; layer of soil without any in. provement resulting, due to the fact that the pores and Joints of the tile had been closed by the' mui. Underlying Under-lying the. humus layer at a depth ol - , Ave feet or more was a bed of sand oi gravel immediately overlaid by a thin bed ofiiay mud and carrying a strong . flow of water. When holes were dug down1 to this layer, the water usually rose-to within at least 30 inches of the' ' surface. "It is very easy then- to set that -If the permanent water leva.'.. Was so ttgh the level during wet pe-riods- must be so high as to render th growth of most plants very difficult When we remember that most planU " ' root deeply we can easily see how important im-portant is the question of water level |