It is well known among those who attend the meetings of the Farmers' Club
of the American Institute, in New York, that the farm of Professor Mapes,
near Newark, N.J., which maintains its wonderful fertility, year after
year, without reference to wet or dry weather, has been rendered almost
absolutely indifferent to the severest drought, by a course of cultivation
which has been rendered possible only by under-draining. The lawns of the
Central Park, which are a marvel of freshness, when the lands about the
Park are burned brown, owe their vigor mainly to the complete drainage of
the soil. What is true of these thoroughly cultivated lands, it is
practicable to attain on all soils, which, from their compact condition,
are now almost denuded of vegetation in dry seasons.
*Porosity or Mellowness.*--An open and mellow condition of the soil is
always favorable for the growth of plants. They require heat, fresh air
and moisture, to enable them to take up the materials on which they live,
and by which they grow. We have seen that the heat of retentive soils is
almost directly proportionate to the completeness with which their free
water is removed by underground draining, and that, by reason of the
increased facility with which air and water circulate within them, their
heat is more evenly distributed among all those parts of the soil which
are occupied by roots. The word _moisture_, in this connection, is used in
contradistinction to _wetness_, and implies a condition of freshness and
dampness,--not at all of saturation.
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