Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1871-09-14
A Ten Per Cent. Investment.

II any larQeF WISHES To put from
hundred to one thousand dollars into
an investment that viii pay him and
his posterity ten per cent. annual in
terest, We say, drain.
In our frequent trips about the coun-
try, we occasionally see farmer, more
enterprising than his neighbor, put
ting down a few tiles but after all the
proofs of it's good effects, that tie
past twenty years have furnished, how
few of our farmers have ever invested
a dollar in drainage. This is certainly
discouraging to those who have in
view the interests of the agricultural
classes, but in the midst of the dis
courageme there is one encourage
ment, viz. : that we have never yet seen
the man who, having given draining a
fair trial, was not satisfied that sit pays
to drain''
Now, brother farmers, let US have a
little plain, sensible talk about the mat
ter. All plants need their best growth
air, heat, moisture, mellow soil, and
plant food (manure). What they can
not thrive in, is hard soil or standing
water.
Your soil may be mellow as far
down as the plow reaches, but beneath
this, unless your soil is quite sandy
or gravelly, there is strata of hard,
unyielding soil, packed by forces OF
gravitation for ages past; and this soil
not only holds water like cup in wet
weather, thus drowning the roots OF
your plants, but it also dries so Aard
in a drouth that none of the moisture
underneath it can be drawn up to
| them.
Neither heat or air can penetrate in.
to this hard subsoil 1t holds plant
food, but this plant food is in cold
sour, acid state, unfit for plants, because
the air cannot have free access to it to
sweeten It, And if the plant food was
in the right state for the plants, the
roots could not penetrate through the
hard pan.
Now, what is needed, is to make this
subsoil light and porous. THIS cal
only be done by preventing the watel
from standing in it and on it, or il
other words, by furnishing sufficien
outlets through it to carry off the wa
ter as fast as it falls. But our crop
must have water, you say. Yes, ant
! if You will give this subsoil a year O
two in which to open its pores, it vii
act like a sieve to let the water through
it, and then, when the surface is dry
will let the roots with their little sue
ton pumps draw up the moisture
through it /; and the roots will them
selves creep down through the pore:
after the moisture. Many of you, who
believe that draining is good for low
lands and swamps, are incredulou
when we talk of its being a preventive
for drouth. But here you see the rea
son. There is always moisture four
five, six, or ten feet down in the earth
and if there is no hard layer to prevent
the roots of the plants will suck III
some of this moisture.
! This is no dream it HAS been trie'
with success by the most intelligen
and successful farmers in the country
r and it has paid them more than tel
: per cent. profit. Many have receive,
: back the cost of drainage in the in
crease of two or three crops. Their
can be'no permanent improvement il
farming, in the older States, until thi
l draining becomes more general. 1t
E success was demonstrated forty year
ago, by that king of successful farm
ers, John johnson, of Geneva, Me-
e York He came to this country fror
F.! England (wnere they drain), and in
1 stead of buying a wet farm and drain
/, ing it, he bought dry land and draine
it. He was laughed at by his neigl
!, bors but he knew, and yet he had N
!, learning; he was plain, practic1
}, farmer. The result was that the drair
|, ing of his land was the greatest ma
s vel that ever occurred in that locafit,
y He is now world renowned for hi
5 large crops and good cattle And
was the draining that lay at the DO
It tom of this. Without it he would NJ
! have accomplished any more than Ii
j neighbors.
y Butyou say, no tiles are made ne'
! here, and that it is too expensive
IS send so far away for them !; besides,
e have no money ready to investin the
5 except little that is drawing interes
= which hate to touch. But it will ps
to transport them. John JohnsC
D, sent to England for his, and moi
20 gcgad his farm to pay for them, al
1, Il paid him. and will pay any II
Ip double the per cent. that his mon,
s. would at interest.
le Ten per cent. is the most modera
:, statement, and twenty-five per cen