1"'he Agricultural College EXTENSION BULLETIN VOLUME III SEPTEMBER 1907 NUMBER 1 11 Pla&ue! ef they ain't somepin' in work 'at kindo goes ag'in' my convictions! " PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY COLUMBUS Entered as Second-Class Matter, November 17, 1905, at the Post Office at Columbus, Ohio, under Act of Congress, July 16, 1904 A CHILD TO A ROSE White Rose, talk to me! I don't know what to do. Why do you say no word to me, Who say so much to you? · I'm bringing you a little rain, And I shall be so proud If, when you feel it on your face, You take me for a cloud. Here I come so softly, You cannot hear me walking; If I take you by surprise, I may catch you talking. "White Rose, talk to me" Tell <ll! your thoughts to me, Whisper in my ear; Talk against the winter, He shall never hear. I can keep a secret Since I was five years old. Tell if you were frighten'd ·when first you felt the cold; And, in the splendid summer, vVhile you flush and grow, Are you ever out of heart Thinking of the snow ? Did it feel like dying VVhen first your blossoms fell? Did you know about the spring? Did the dasies tell? If you had no notion, Only fear and doubt, How I should have liked to see vVhen you found it out! Such a beautiful surprise! What must you have felt, When your heart began to stir, As the snow began to melt ! 2 Do you mind the darkness As I used to do? You are not as old as I­ I can comfort you. The little noises that you hear Are winds that come and go. The world is always kind and safe, Whether you see or no; And if you think that there are eyes About you near and far, Perhaps the fairies are watching­ ! know the angels are. I think you must be lonely When all the colors fail, And moonlight makes the garden So massy and so pale; And anything might come at least Out of those heaps of shade. I would stay beside you If I were not afraid ! Children have no right to go Abroad in night and gloom ; But you are as safe in the garden As I am in my room. White Rose, do you love me? I only wish you'd say! I would work hard to please you If I but knew the way. It seems so hard to be loving, And not a sign to see But the silence and the sweetness For all as well as me. I think you nearly perfect, In spite of all your '.>corns ; But, White Rose, if I were you, I wouldn't have those thorns! -ANONYMOUS. 3 11 I wouldn't have those thorns" DRAINAGE BY A. G. McCALL, Professor of Agronomy. NATURAL DRAINAGE Land is nowhere exactly level. Its slope is alwavs toward the streams that have carried the free water from it. The greater the slope the less water will the soil take into itself. The same attractive force that draws a ball, stone, or bird to the earth draws the raindrops to the ground. This same force still continues to pull straight down­ ward. The steeper the hill the more rapidly is the water drawn down­ ward, and little of it is given a chance to be taken up by the soil, as water or ink that falls upon a blotter is taken into it. The more ne1rly Shows quantity of water that Shows quantity of water that passes through loam. passes through clay. The same experiment can be performed by using bakbg powder cans and tumblers. 4 level the land, the more readily does the rain pass into it. It will con­ tinue to pass into it until, like the blotter or sponge, the soil can hold no more, when the water will flow over the surface to the lowest point in the field or little valley; here it joins a rill, creek, or river-a part of nature's great drainage system. A fine sponge will hold more water than a coarse one ; a coarse, loose blotter will take up less water, but will do it more rapidly than a compact or hard one. Clay soils are made up of small particles and will hold the most water. Very frequently the rainfall :s so rapid and the quantity so great that the soil cannot absorb it. What cannot enter the clay will pass over the surface to the nearest stream. The slow, steady rains, or the frequent rains of certain seasons of the year allow the clays to become too well filled with water for the good of the plant, if there is no way of escape other than by a very slow, downward course, or by evaporation. A loam will take in water very rapidly and will allow it to pass downward much more readily than clay, because the parts of which it AFTEJ:« KINQ Showing Jines of flow of &round water dunng seepage into a stream. is composed are coarse and the space between the parts is larger. It is like the loose blotter that will take up water more rapidly than the compact one, but will not hold so much. Nature has an underground as well as a surface system of drain­ age. Rock is found beneath all soil. In some places it lies but a few feet below the surface, in others many hundred feet. There are also beds of gravel and sand beneath some soils. Water comes to rock layers or gravel beds and seeks a passage out along the direction of the slope of these underground layers. A spring is but an outlet of one of these passages. A well is only a hole dug down to an underground waterway. An artesian well is made by punching or drilling a hole into an underground stream whose source is higher than the surface of the ground where the hole is drilled. Just think of a long under­ ground hillside waterway as a supply for the artesian well. Nature does her work well and in her own time. She has taken long periods of time to wash down the hills, to break up and wear off 5 small particles of rock, to grow plants that upon their decay become humus in the soil, to mix the fine rock particles and humus, to fill up low places with vegetable substance and washings, and to place the rocks, gravel and soil in the order and condition in which they are now found. She would go on persistently carrying out her plans as to the formation of the soil, the place and kind of plants grown, and fruits produced, the drainage system, the temperature and ventilation of the soil, if man did not step in and ask the questions of the plant as to the conditions under which it begins its growth, and develops, and the pos­ sibilities of its greater development. He has observed the withering and curling of the leaves on corn and other plants; the yellow color of the same plants and of the grasses has been considered ; the very spindling growth of plants on cold, sticky "Water comes to rock layers or gravel beds and seeks a passage out along the direction of the slope of these underground layers." soil and the more luxuriant, growth on loose, warm soil have been noted. It has been long known that an excessive qu::ntity of water caused the plant to become spindling and yellow; the need for water caused the leaves to curl and wither. The growth of moss indicates a soil that is very moist. Large, deep cracks in the surface of the soil in­ dicate that there has been an excess of moisture. Natural drainage is too slow to be of immediate benefit to man. 6 Artificial drainage is used to carry the water away more rapidly. The first and the easiest to provide is a system of surface drains which carry away little more than surface water. If the under or sub-soil is sandy or gravelly, the surplus water readily finds its way down through the soil, but if the soil is heavy clay to a considerable depth it is necessary to use deep open ditches or tile drains in order to remove the excess of water after every heavy rain. About one-third of the total air space in sand and about one-half of that space in clay is occupied by the soil particles themselves and the other half is taken up by air, if the soil be dry. For the best growth of crops about half of the space not occupied by soil should be equally divided between air and water. If the soil is not drained this space be­ comes entirely filled with water and the plants whose roots are feeding in the soil are suffocated from the lack of air and oxygen. Some plants, such as the cypress and water lily, have special structures which enable them to obtain their oxygen from the air and water while their roots are entirely under water; but our common field plants do not have this power. Soils that are quite sanely or gravelly may allow the water to pass downward too rapidly and thus deprive the plants of needed ·•Large deep cracks in the surface of the soil indicate that there has been an excess of moisture.1 '-Drains are needed.