The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-05-06
WITHDRAWING.

Last week we spoke of some OF the advan-
tages Of Undertaking this week, how
where, &C.
How To dran--at what depth, what materi-
MS, &C., are questions Of much debate, Some
experience, and more thinking and reading,
have revealed to US some truths on this sub
ject, One is that few deep drains better
than great many shallow ones, for the reason
that, if laid below the frost line, as they always
should be, If possible, freezing cannot injure
4nd close them up, as it often does shallow
ones; and that the draining benefits extend
over an area directly proportional to the depth.
For all drains must have certain amount Of
fall to deliver the water; and the artificial
drain Is only to form outlet 20 the millions
OF natural ones already in the soil, in the form
OF the countless pores or cells, all communi-
eating with one another, Just as the spaces
in a pile of rocks or pebbles are continuous
passages through which water will pass to
any depth with free exit from the bottom.
Hence the deeper the artificial drain, the great
er the fall to the myriad natural ones, and so
The greater the surface they will drain. With
ont pretending to be mathematically exact, it
Is safe to say that onedrain four feet deep will
benefit as much surface as four drains one foot
leep thus with the same amount of digging
ia both cases there is a saving of the materi-
ais OF three drains. Many object to deep
urains fearing the surface water will not reach
them, especially in compact soils like clay :
hut provide for its escape at the bottom, and
we will warrant good draining at any depth
five, ten or a hundred feet; down in torrents
through the larger pores. and up again through
The minute ones by capillary attraction, as ex-
palned last week For drained soil is the
5trt OF the world, with two circulatons-
old, impure blood passing away through the
coarse veins to be utilized elsewhere in springs
and rivers the i(egiving juices ascending in
the more delicate tubes or arteries to give veg
etabe growth.
Drain materials These are many tiles,
bricks, ston-, wood. Where tiles are to be
had readily, they are no doubt the best thing
But with most people who will, or ought to
DRAIN the cost of tiles is fatal fact Hence
ior the million, stone or wood must be the ma
terial. To stone, while it is the cheapest
there is this great objection unless laid en-
tirely below frost, and with great care, a single
rock getting displaced will close it up and rem
der it perfectly yalueless. Our garden, spoken
OF last week, had drains laid deeply and care
uy with stone; but every few years they
would close up from that cause. A dozen years
ago, we took up the stone and laid 1t with
three round poles, four to six inches in diam
eter; two for the sides-one to drop in between
lhem about a fourth part o its size for COW
ering, filling 10 solid behind the side pieces
10 prevent spreading, and carefully chinking all
holes where dirt might enter. From that day
10 this IT has been in perfect condition; and
many neighbors who have tried this method, Oh
Jur recommendation, viii hear ample estimo-
ny, both as TO Its cheapness and excellence
And it matters but little what the wood is; for
We have seen those pershabic kinds-spruce
and fr-taken from old cellar drains, where
hey had lain forty years, sounder than when
placed there, because petrifed, seemingly, in
their underground home. Yet where as con-
Fenent cedar and hacmetack may be the best :
but let none delay this useful work for the
want Of them,-for any of the common woods
viii last for generations. Nor is straight tim
Der essential; for where crooks occur, saw in
straight.
Whcrt to drain Is essential. In the first place
then, as health, life, comfort and decency are
teas high above all others, let 1t be done
around the dwelling and all the buildings. For,
as we have several times shown in these col
amns, nothing conduces so much to sickness
and death the stagnant, putrid waters
around the homestead, besides all the discom-
forts OF such a nuisance. Beginning at some
low spot In the street other good outlet dig
up, four or i've feet deep, If the ground will
permit, into the door yard, or other wet place
~ your main, into which similar drains can
enter from all the wet places round about. AT
Ter this Improvement, instead of ''the con-
lOnnded Old place" which you have been try
When this shall have been done as We trust
II Will be this very year, there are the wet
heavy gardens, and elsewhere spongy places
keeping, by their ioW the fields wet and rem
dering their cultivation SO late and so imper-
tect rs TO be prohtless. And then how many
nigh bogs and meadows and sloping swales do
We see everywhere. fertile as the most famous
prairies, with the rich deposits of countless
ages; as worthless now as We're those prairies
before nature drained off their useless waters
And when, by these means, your praries
shall have become dry land, put In the plow
deeply as the sward can be hands omely turn
edi and into the seams of every other lurrow
pat sugar beet seed, and thin the plants TO a
foot in the row. For, under just such circum-
stances We nave known them TO be, at matur-
", nine inches ia diameter; 50 that at Il foot
apart they would lap by some inches, produc-
ing vast amount TO the acre. At present
these can be converted with great profit into
milk and butter; at pfeseHt-for we want to
tell all who have spot of land, that beet root
sagdr-mah{nJ is rapidly it's sweet way
through the world; is already an interest of
great magnitude in some of the old countries
and In year or two, at most, will be here at
our doors. Let us then that we are not
the foolish virgins with no oil in our lamps
when the bridegroom cometh but have them
trimmed and burning by having the ground
duly prepared, and by all the helps which prac
science ne