e benefitted
by Summer fallowing. The experiments instituted for the purpose of
establishing this theory, although they disproved it, showed the great
value of thorough pulverization. It is manifest that a wet soil can
never be pulverized. Plowing clayey, or even loamy soil, when wet, tends
rather to press it together, and render it less pervious to air and
water.

The first effect of under-draining is to dry the surface-soil, to draw
out all the water that will run out of it, so that, in early Spring, or
in Autumn, it may be worked with the plow as advantageously as undrained
lands in mid-Summer.

Striking illustrations of the benefits of thorough pulverization will be
found in the excellent remarks of Dr. Madden, given in a subsequent
chapter.

_Drainage prevents surface-washing._ All land which is not level, and is
not in grass, is liable to great loss by heavy rains in Spring and
Autumn. If the land is already filled with water, or has not sufficient
drainage, the rain cannot pass directly downward, but runs away upon the
surface, carrying with it much of the soil, and washing out of what
remains, of the valuable elements of fertility which have been applied
with such expense. If the land be properly drained, the water falling
from the clouds is at once absorbed, and passes downwards, saturating
the soil in its descent, and carrying the soluble substances with it to
the roots, and the surplus water runs away in the artificial channels
provided by the draining process. So great is the absorbent power of
drained land, that, after a protracted drought, all the water of a heavy
rainstorm will be drunk up and held by the soil, so that, for a day or
two, none will find its way to the drains, nor will it run upon the
surface.

_Drainage lengthens the season for labor and vegetation._ In the colder
latitudes of our country, where a long Winter is succeeded by a torrid
Summer, with very little ceremony by way of an intervening Spring,
farmers have need of all their energy to get their seed seasonably into
the ground. Snow often covers the fields in New England into April; and
the ground is so saturated with water, that the land designed for corn
and potatoes, frequently cannot be plowed till late in May. The manure
is to be hauled from the cellar or yard, over land lifted and softened
by frost, and all the processes of preparing and planting, are
necessarily hurried and imperfect. In the Annual Report of the Secretary