Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1883-01-04

a township in Johnston county, and Ia
king period of five years before tile
drainage began. and FIVE years after
most Of the township was tile drained.
BY consulting farmers who had lived in
the township during both periods, they
found that the average crop of wheat in
the I've years before drainage. was 91a
bushels. The same land after drainage
in live consecutive years, produced an
average of 194 bushels per acre. The
average yield OF corn in the first FIVE
years was 314 bushels per acre. In the
five years after drainage the average
yield was TAX bushels per acre. The
physicians who had answered calls in
the township were asked to report from
their books, and it was found that in the
first five years there had been 1850 cases
OF malariRl disease. In the second peri
cd 1t was found that there had been on
ly 400 cases of malarial disease. This
report makes very favorable illustra
tion of the advantages of tile draining.
Many years ago it was no uncommon
thing for New York Yankee to knock
the bottom out o. a swamp, and his less
enterprising neighbors would stare at
the crops that followed.
Drainage mas received the attention
of kings, presidents. princes, political
economists and philosophers. Ralph
Waldo Emerson said that by drainage
they had found a Concord under Con-
cord, a Middlesex under Middlesex, and
basement story under Massachusetts.
more valuable than the superstructuIe
Tilo- t,nlitiooi aoono,nioto
young Americans announcing better
era and "a day of fat things" The late
President Garfield used tile on his farm
at Mentor, with marked success. The
Roman fathers knew the value of drain
age. for Cato Virgil and others wrote
about both open and underground
trenches. We read of great works of
drainage that were performed by the
early kings of Egypt, to reclaim the
swamp land in the delta of the Nile.
Every country that has been successful
in growing agricultural products, has
made her grandest achievements in re-
claiming and draining her waste and
swamp land. We have eDdeavored to
show that the drainage deepens the soil,
that is, improves the texture of the soil,
it gives the soil the benefit of atmospheric
circulation, it enables US to work sooner
after rains, it makes the soil ten degrees
warmer, it enables us to get at our
work earlier in the spring, it starts our
crops at least two weeks earlier, it pre-
vents grass or wheat from freezing out
in winter. it enables US to get the full
benefit of the fertilizers we apply, it i'm
proves the quality of both pasture and
hay, it gets our fields in cleaner, health
ier condition, and will greatly aid us in
our battle with foot-rot in sheep,it will,
TO certain extent, prevent surface
washing, it makes the soil more friable
and mellow, and easier to cultivate, it
prevents land from becoming sour, by
removing all standing water before it
becomes stagnant, it makes land less liza
BILE to be injured by the tramping of
stock, and the hauling with wagons; it
will remove the poverty grass and tickle
grass from our spouty hillsides, and
clothe them with luxuriant pasturage,
which will greatly improve our stock !;
in many instances slip and unsightly
places on hillsides could be prevented; !;
it would be of incalculable benefit to our
public roads; it will do away with much
of the mud around the farm build
ings; it will lessen the danger frem ma
larial diseases; it will drive the mort
cages away from many farms, and great
ly promote the health of man, woman
and child; it means farming on intelli
gent and progressive principles, and 1t
Is the basisOn which the future agri
cultural prosperity of our country rests.
l have endeayored to give some of the
advantages of tile draining. AS scienti-
EN tf,
and as more of the mysteries Of vegeta-
BILE growth are solved, the more will
successful farmers learn Of the advanta-
ges of tile draining. 1t is not a mere
matter of handling mud and burnt clay,
but it is subject worthy the study of
the finest intellects of our time. 1t pays
a profit of from 25 to 100 per cent on the
copital invested. The first crop after
drainage often pays the entire expense.
1t would take 500 tile factories nearly
fifty years to make tile enough to drain
the wet land in Ohio. A great many
farms in this State are annually getting
poorer for want of drainage. Some men
have neglected draining so long that
they are now too poor to do it. The
farmers who exc out an existence on
land without paying any regard to i'm
provements or to keeping up its fertili-
ty are the robbers and scavengers of the
present age. They are robbing future
generations of their rightful Inheritance.
Then let us, as practical farmers, drain
the land that needs it worst, and as the
years roll on we shall drain more and
more. AS we drain our farms better,
better tillage, better crops, better stock.
m ore leisure and more of the luxuries
of life will be sure to follow. Ohio, with
her progressive people, her excellent eli
mate, her natural resources, and her i'm
mense wealth, should be fully up to the
times in the development of agriculture.