nd is left unbroken until May or
June, and then plowed. In August it is plowed again, and fitted for
seeding to wheat. The practice favors the killing of weeds, and the
soil at seeding time may contain more water than would have been the
case if a crop had been produced, because its mellow condition enables
the farmer to hold within it nearly all the moisture that a shower may
furnish after the second plowing.

The Modern Fallow.--The modern method of making a grass seeding in
August partakes of the nature of the old-fashioned summer-fallow. The
desire is to eradicate weeds, secure availability in plant-food, and
fit the soil to profit by even a light rainfall. Thin soils lend
themselves well to this treatment, which is described in Chapter VIII,
and there is no better method for fertile land. The benefit of the
fallow is obtained without serious loss of time.

CHAPTER XXIII

DRAINAGE

Underdrainage.--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-owner 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.

Counting the Cost.--Thorough underdrainage is costly, but it is less so
than the farming of fields whose productiveness is seriously limited by
an excess of water. The work means an added investment. Estimates of
cost can be made with fair accuracy, and estimates of resulting profit
can be made without any assurance of accuracy. The farmer with some wet
land does well to gain exp