Poor crops are, when the cultivation of the soil is reasonably good, caused either by inherent poverty of the land, or by too great moisture during the season of early growth. Which of these causes has operated in a particular case may be easily known. Manure will correct the difficulty in the former case, but in the latter there is no real remedy short of such a system of drainage as will thoroughly relieve the soil of its surplus water. *The Sources of the Water* in the soil are various. Either it falls directly upon the land as rain; rises into it from underlying springs; or reaches it through, or over, adjacent land. The _rain water_ belongs to the field on which it falls, and it would be an advantage if it could all be made to pass down through the first three or four feet of the soil, and be removed from below. Every drop of it is freighted with fertilizing matters washed out from the air, and in its descent through the ground, these are given up for the use of plants; and it performs other important work among the vegetable and mineral parts of the soil. The _spring water_ does not belong to the field,—not a drop of it,—and it ought not to be allowed to show itself within the reach of the roots of ordinary plants. It has fallen on other land, and, presumably, has there done its appointed work, and ought not to be allowed to convert our soil into a mere outlet passage for its removal. The _ooze water_,—that which soaks out from adjoining land,—is subject to all the objections which hold against spring water, and should be rigidly excluded. But the _surface water_ which comes over the surface of higher ground in the vicinity, should be allowed every opportunity, which is consistent with good husbandry, to work its slow course over our soil,—not to run in such streams as will cut away the surface, nor in such quantities as to make the ground inconveniently wet, but to spread itself in beneficent irrigation, and to deposit the fertilizing matters which it contains, then to descend through a well-drained subsoil, to a free outlet. From whatever source the water comes, it cannot remain stagnant in any soil without permanent injury to its fertility. *The Objection to too much Water in the Soil* will be understood from the following explanation of the process of germination, (sprouting,) and growth. Other grave reasons why it is injurious will be treated in their proper order.