Underdrainage

Categories: DRAINAGE

There are great swamps, and small ones, whose water

should be carried off by open ditches. Our present interest is in the

wet fields of the farm,--the cold, wet soil of an entire field, the

swale lying between areas of well-drained land, the side of a field

kept wet by seepage from higher land,--and here the right solution of

the troubling problem lies in underdrainage. An excess of water in the

soil robs the land-owne of chance of profit. It excludes the air,

sealing up the plant-food so that crops cannot be secured. It keeps the

ground cold. It destroys the good physical condition of the soil that

may have been secured by much tillage, causing the soil particles to

pack together. It compels plant-roots to form at the surface of the

ground. It delays seeding and cultivation. An excess of water is more

disheartening than absolute soil poverty. The remedy is only in its

removal. The level of dead water in the soil must be below the

surface--three feet, two and one half feet, four feet,--some reasonable

distance that will make possible a friable, aerated, warm, friendly

feeding-ground for plant-roots. Only under drainage can do this.