On stiff lands, hollow drains have been tried without stones, narrow at the bottom, and covered half way up with sods, or square spits of the surface sward relying on ledges cut for that purpose on suitable soils. Water furrowing, if more practised, would in a great measure assist in remedying this evil. The soil is peat moss and clay, with abundance of marl. There are several other large open drains, from low laying meadows and pastures, which have benefitted the proprietors, but require a little more of their attention to keep them clean than they seem to give. The lands, especially near the towns, complain of this mode, but manure is there at command.
Few farms are so uniformly of the same sort of land, as to admit of a general system of cropping.
The clover is sometimes manured according to the condition of the soil or ability of the farmer. There are many fields, especially those at a distance from the farmhouses, that never have any other course of management. On the marled land of the north end of the island, twelve crops of pease, and barley alternately, are often taken, and sometimes fifteen, without any other assistance than the dressing of marl, or even throwing in grass seeds. But on many farms, crops of sown grads are interspersed, and wheat obtained. If the land gets stiff or foul, a fallow followed by wheat is used.