Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1857-12-03

an old practice in some parts of France te
perforate the soil, when practicable, to the
sand or gravel, and to lead the water to the
wells in open bitches, where it was rapidly
absorbed. have successfully resorted to
this blan, under favorable circumstances, to
avoid culverts under high embankments,
whefe there were no running streams to en-
counter: E7se EzsEE
/ Amongst the advantages to be derived
foonIsa deep and thorough system of tile
draining, as practiced in Great Britain, are
claimed to be drier and more friable soil,
that resist drought better than in its natural
states by drawing up water from the subsoil
by capillary attraction-a better aeration
and more efficient action of manures by the
per klation of water downwards after rains
a more rapid growth of plants and conse-
quently greater immunity from blight and
the favages of insects, and more hardihood
in resisting the action of frosts-less liabi-
Ility 70 wash and loss of fertilizing matter
an entire fitness for cultivation in the spring
and after heavy rains, and at all times
much.higher underground or bottom tenn
lperasure-a great disideratum, as every
gardener. knows. IF these facts be well es-
tablished, as they certainly seem to be-, there
can BE no doubt entertained Of the great i'm
portaace of the question. That they are
truths may be inferred from the almost uni
vers5lity of the practice in one Of the most
intelligent and best cultivated countries in
the world; and where the good sense shown
in tie conduct Of private affairs has passed
into a proverb. ----'.--
There is another fact we'll worthy of con-
sideration in connection with sub-drainage.
Mr.. De Undergraduate Professor IN the
Agricultural Institute Of France-says,
I''TEe climate itself gains sensibly by it.
The health Of the inhabitants is improved;
and in all parts where drainage has been
vigorously carried out the mists of the fog
gy isle. (Great Brittany seem less thick and
hea7 Drainage was first thought Of ten
years age and now l84S] more than two
NIL ;.,ns 81 acres at least are already drained:
the whole of England will be so. It is as
if the island were once more rising out of
the sea- -
But it is contended that however profitable
it may be to resort to sub-drainage in Eng
land it cannot be so necessary in the United
States, owing to the difference in climate.
To some extent this may be so, but I am
inclined to doubt the truth of the conclusion.
To be sure we have more bright days than
in England. but the annual quantity Of rain
that falls with us is greater than in that
country; and where that system has been
fairly tried in the New World it's results
l.. I IL
in the old. .-,- ~. ....
A few years ago, being in,western New
Y ork, [ visited a farm where the first expert
ment Of draining with earthen tile had been
tried, in the United States, as regular sys-
tenn, and where it has still continued in active
operation. It was my purpose to examine
the process in detail and to judge Of its eff
fects from personal observation. To my
mind they were perfectly satisfactory. The
farm to which [ refer is situated on the east
ern slope of Seneca Top and elevated seve-
raj hundred feet above its level. The soil
is rich friable loan, naturally well adapt
ed to the growth Of corn, wheat and clover.
70 my untutored Judgment but little of it
required draining of any kinda few open
bitches would have cleared it from surplus
water. The proprietor informed me that
he first drained six acres-a portion of
2O-acre lot, which had rarely brought good
crop of wheat OR clover, owing to winter
killing. He planted in corn, and, with the
usual cultivation, made from the drained
portion SO bushels Of corn to the acre. The
next year it was cropped in barley, the
drained land ''producing the finest plant and
best yield of grain" This induced him to
drain the remainder Of the lot at cost of
S22 per acre. It was again sowed in bar
ley and followed with clover: He says of
the latter-''I cut a very large crop, and
not square foot of it froze out, and now [
can rely upon good crop of anything SOW
or plant" Speaking Of another lot of forty
acres, subsequently drained, he continues
''This year harvested from this field crop
Iof wheat, and a heavier crop never saw to
stand up: Heretofore, many acres Of wheat
were lost on the upzand by freezing out, and
none would grow on the low lands. Now
there is no loss from that cause; only two
small patches were lodged, in all less than
a quarter of an acre; in fact, the whole field
was SO even that it was difficult to pronounce
any five acres worse or better than the rest.
This wheat also seemed to stand fly better
than in the surrounding fields. In 1855,
the time Of my visit, the owner, plain
hard working farmer, had laid fifty miles of
such drains. In his prize essay on this sub
ject he says-''My first efforts were made
in 1885, when imported a pattern of drain
tiles from Scotland and caused them to be
made in this neighborhood by hand. It is
to this gentleman, Mr.. John tombstone, an