The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-04-02
What Lands Shall we Drain I:

In the January No., In an article on
| draining, several questions were get apart
for future discussion. The first of these
! was the one which forms the title of this
| article.
The question Immediately rises, when a
farmer thinks of draining, Which of my
fields shall drain first and he generally
answers it by selecting the worst. In fact,
writer's on the subject Of draining almost
always recommend that it be first applied
to such fields as are most in need OF it
that is, to utterly worthless swamps and
very wet brush pastures. Though, at first
sight, the advice seems to be good; on far
ther consideration, it will be seen that there
are some good reasons why these fields are
not the ones whose early draining will re-
suit in the greatest early profit. The drain
ing of worthless swamp is an acquisition
of more land, an extension of the actual
limits of the farm and it implies greater
amount of work to be done in cultivation
and harvesting, more capital to be invested
in implements and labor, and additional
acres to be MANFRED. The crop resulting
from its reclamation must pay the charges
of interest, labor, live stock, and manure,
before it can yield US any actual profit; and
probably during the first ten years after
the reclaimiDg of such land, when We come
to consider the extent to which other land
must be neglected for the sake of it, there
will not be much clear profit resulting.
Probably the land which it will pay the
farmer best to drain is the best land on his
whole farm, if this needs draining ct all.
| Interest en- value, teams, and labor for Gull
tivation, manure for fertilizing, and stock
to consume products, are already provided
the field is already paying all these charges.
ANY process that will tend to increase its
crop will be attended with very slight in
crease of expense, if any and the entire
| benefit attributable to the drainage is so
much clear profit, which, taxed by no
charges, accumulates year by year into a
fund which will enable US to extend our
| improvements to other lands. In the drain
ing of the farm we shall come finally to
the worthless swamp, armed with expe-
rience in the work, confidence in its results,
and means for its execution, which will in
sure not only that the draining shall be
complete and successful, but that the i'm
proved condition of the land shall imme-
| diately be made to yield its fair proportion
of profit.
OF course, there are many fields and
many whole farms which need nothing
more than the very complete draining that
Nature herself has given them in the form
of porous subsoil-such lands as are
known all over the country as 6 early" and
"warm." A few years ago we contemplated
the conversion of field Of heavy land into
a market garden, and on consultation with
an old fashioned neighbor were dissuaded
from doing 80. 81 don't think that'll make
good garden land" "Why not ?" swell,
it's kind O. cold and late" "But I intend
to underdrain it." "Well, know-but it's
cold" "Is Mt it cold because it's wet 2"
"Well, may be 80, partly-but then it's
materially cold.'
Now, if the experience of the last forty
or fifty years in the use of draining tiles
has proven anything, it has proven that
materially cold " means wet, and means
absolutely nothing else. In proportion as
heavy, wet lands are thoroughly drained,
in just that proportion do they become
thoroughly warm and while, owing to the
quantity of clay they contain, it may not
be possible ever to make them as light and
warm as sandy land, it is always possible
to make them light enough and warm
enough for the most successful cultivation.
If we desired to sum up in single ex-
preston the whole gist Of our advice to any
farmer who wished to decide what fields it
was best for him to drain, we should re-
commend him to try, first of all, such as
are materially cold;" and if we wished
to be more explicit, we should carry out the
arguments which justify this suggestion by
endeavoring to convince him that his great
est proportion, not of return, but of profit,
is to be found in the draining of land which
is already rich and profitable for cultiva-
ton, but is yearly subject to those many
i'll effects of too great wet or too great
drought, which it is the chief object of I'M
derdraining to overcome.-AmericanA gri-