rain comes upon a soil in this state, of
course the cracks fill, the clay imbibes the water, expands, and the
cracks are abolished. But if there are four or five feet parallel drains
in the land, the water passes at once into them and is carried off. In
fact, when heavy rain falls upon clay lands in this cracked state, it
passes off too quickly, without adequate filtration. Into the fissures of
the undrained soil the roots only penetrate to be perished by the cold and
wet of the succeeding winter; but in the drained soil the roots follow the
threads of vegetable mold which have been washed into the cracks, and get
an abiding tenure. Earth worms follow either the roots or the mold.
Permanent schisms are established in the clay, and its whole character is
changed. An old farmer in a midland county began with 20-inch drains
across the hill, and, without ever reading a word, or, we believe,
conversing with any one on the subject, poked his way, step by step, to
four or five feet drains, in the line of steepest descent. Showing us his
drains this spring, he said: 'They do better year by year; the water gets
a habit of coming to them '--a very correct statement of fact, though not a
very philosophical explanation."

Alderman Mechi, of Tiptree Hall, says: "Filtration may be too sudden, as
is well enough shown by our hot sands and gravels; but I apprehend no one
will ever fear rendering strong clays too porous and manageable. The
object of draining is to impart to such soils the mellowness and dark
color of self drained, rich and friable soil. That perfect drainage and
cultivation will do this, is a well known fact. I know it in the case of
my own garden. How it does so I am not chemist enough to explain in
detail; but it is evident the effect is produced by the fibers of the
growing crop intersecting every particle of the soil, which they never
could do before draining; these, with their excretions, decompose on
removal of the crop, and are acted on by the alternating air and water,
which also decompose and change, in a degree, the inorganic substances of
the soil. Thereby drained land, which was, before, impervious to air and
water, and consequently unavailable to air and roots, to worms, or to
vegetable or animal life, becomes, by drainage, populated by both, and is
a great chemical laboratory, as our own atmosphere is subject to all the
changes produced by animated nature."

Experience proves that the descent of water throu