The Elements of Agriculture Part 32

12. It prevents the throwing out of grain in winter.

13. It allows us to work sooner after rains.

14. It keeps off the effects of cold weather longer in the fall.

15. It prevents the formation of _acetic_ and other organic acids, which induce the growth of sorrel and similar weeds.

16. It hastens the decay of vegetable matter, and the finer comminution of the earthy parts of the soil.

17. It prevents, in a great measure, the evaporation of water, and the consequent abstraction of heat from the soil.

18. It admits fresh quant.i.ties of water from rains, etc., which are always more or less imbued with the fertilizing gases of the atmosphere, to be deposited among the absorbent parts of soil, and given up to the necessities of plants.

19. It prevents the formation of so hard a crust on the surface of the soil as is customary on heavy lands.

[How does under-draining prevent drought?]

1. Under-draining _prevents drought_, because it gives a better circulation of air in the soil; (it does so by making it more open).

There is always the same amount of water _in_ and _about_ the surface of the earth. In winter, there is more in the soil than in summer, while in summer, that which has been dried out of the soil exists in the atmosphere in the form of a _vapor_. It is held in the vapory form by _heat_, which acts as _braces_ to keep it distended. When vapor comes in contact with substances sufficiently colder than itself, it gives up its heat--thus losing its braces--contracts, and becomes liquid water.

This may be observed in hundreds of common operations.

[Why is there less water in the soil in summer than in winter, and where does it exist?

What holds it in its vapory form?

How is it affected by cold substances?

Describe the deposit of moisture on the outside of a pitcher in summer.

What other instances of the same action can be named?]

It is well known that a cold pitcher in summer robs the vapor in the atmosphere of its heat, and causes it to be deposited on its own surface. It looks as though the pitcher were _sweating_, but the water all comes from the atmosphere, not, of course, through the sides of the pitcher.

If we breathe on a knife-blade, it condenses in the same manner the moisture of the breath, and becomes covered with a film of water.

Stone houses are damp in summer, because the inner surfaces of the walls, being cooler than the atmosphere, cause its moisture to be deposited in the manner described. By leaving a s.p.a.ce, however, between the walls and the plaster, this moisture is prevented from being troublesome.

[How does this principle affect the soil?

Explain the experiment with the two boxes of soil.]

Nearly every night in the summer season, the cold earth receives moisture from the atmosphere in the form of dew.

A cabbage, which at night is very cold, condenses water to the amount of a gill or more.

The same operation takes place in the soil. When the air is allowed to circulate among its lower and _cooler_ particles, they receive moisture from the same process of condensation. Therefore, when, by the aid of under-drains, the lower soil becomes sufficiently open to admit of a circulation of air, the deposit of atmospheric moisture will keep the soil supplied with water at a point easily accessible to the roots of plants.

If we wish to satisfy ourselves that this is _practically_ correct, we have only to prepare two boxes of finely pulverized soil, one, five or six inches deep, and the other fifteen or twenty inches deep, and place them in the sun at mid-day in summer. The thinner soil will be completely dried, while the deeper one, though it may have been perfectly dry at first, will soon acc.u.mulate a large amount of water on those particles which, being lower and more sheltered from the sun's heat than the particles of the thin soil, are made cooler.

With an open condition of subsoil, then, such as may be secured by under-draining, we entirely overcome drought.

[How does under-draining supply to the soil an increased amount of atmospheric fertilizers?

How does it warm the lower parts of the soil?]

2. Under-draining _furnishes an increased supply of atmospheric fertilizers_, because it secures a change of air in the soil. This change is produced whenever the soil becomes filled with water, and then dried; when the air above the earth is in rapid motion, and when the comparative temperature of the upper and lower soils changes. It causes new quant.i.ties of the ammonia and carbonic acid which it contains to be presented to the absorbent parts of the soil.

3. Under-draining _warms the lower parts of the soil_, because the deposit of moisture (1) is necessarily accompanied by an abstraction of heat from the atmospheric vapor, and because heat is withdrawn from the whole amount of air circulating through the cooler soil.

When rain falls on the parched surface soil, it robs it of a portion of its heat, which is carried down to equalize the temperature for the whole depth. The heat of the rain-water itself is given up to the soil, leaving the water from one to ten degrees cooler, when it pa.s.ses out of the drains, than when received by the earth.

There is always a current of air pa.s.sing from the lower to the upper end of a well constructed drain; and this air is always cooler in warm weather, when it issues from, than when it enters the drain. Its lost heat is imparted to the soil.

[How does it hasten the decomposition of roots and other organic matter in the soil?

How does it accelerate the disintegration of its mineral parts?

Why is this disintegration necessary to fertility?]

This heating of the lower soil renders it more favorable to vegetation, partially by expanding the spongioles at the end of the roots, thus enabling them to absorb larger quant.i.ties of nutritious matters.

4. Under-draining _hastens the decomposition of roots and other organic matters in the soil_, by admitting increased quant.i.ties of air, thus supplying _oxygen_, which is as essential in decay as it is in combustion. It also allows the resultant gases of decomposition to pa.s.s away, leaving the air around the decaying substances in a condition to continue the process.

This organic decay, besides its other benefits, produces an amount of heat perfectly perceptible to the smaller roots of plants, though not so to us.

5. Draining _accelerates the disintegration of the mineral matters in the soil_, by admitting water and oxygen to keep up the process. This disintegration is necessary to fertility, because the roots of plants can feed only on matters dissolved from _surfaces_; and the more finely we pulverize the soil, the more surface we expose. For instance, the interior of a stone can furnish no food for plants; while, if it were finely crushed, it might make a fertile soil.

Any thing, tending to open the soil to exposure, facilitates the disintegration of its particles, and thereby increases its fertility.

[How does under-draining equalize the distribution of the fertilizing parts of the soil?

Why does this distribution lessen the impoverishment of the soil?

How does under-draining improve the mechanical texture of the soil?

How do drains affect the excrement.i.tious matter of plants?]

6. Draining _causes a more even distribution of nutritious matters among those parts of soil traversed by roots_, because it increases the ease with which water travels around, descending by its own weight, moving sideways by a desire to find its level, or carried upward by attraction to supply the evaporation at the surface. By this continued motion of the water, soluble matter of one part of the soil may be carried to some other part; and another const.i.tuent from this latter position may be carried back to the former. Thus the food of vegetables is continually circulating around among their roots, ready for absorption at any point where it is needed, while the more open character of the soil enables roots to occupy larger portions, making a more even drain on the whole, and preventing the undue impoverishment of any part.

7. Under-drains _improve the mechanical texture of the soil_; because, by the decomposition of its parts, as previously described (4 and 5), it is rendered of a character to be more easily worked; while smooth round particles, which have a tendency to pack, are roughened by the oxidation of their surfaces, and move less easily among each other.

8. Drains _cause the excrement.i.tious matter of plants to be carried out of the reach of their roots_. Nearly all plants return to the soil those parts of their food, which are not adapted to their necessities, and usually in a form that is poisonous to plants of the same kind. In an open soil, this matter may be carried by rains to a point where roots cannot reach it, and where it may undergo such changes as will fit it to be again taken up.

[Why do they prevent gra.s.ses from running out?]

9. By under-draining, _gra.s.ses are prevented from running out_, partly by preventing the acc.u.mulation of the poisonous excrement.i.tious matter, and partly because these gra.s.ses usually consist of _tillering_ plants.