Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-07-17

/ pocket, or lie idle IN the bank, groan
ing to get out and see the light of
day; Or to be spent in promoting tie
interests of his farm
! Thing should be laid from two to
thlee feet deep, and any farmer who
has a thoroughly tile drained farm,
the tile Being laid say two rods apart
has full control of his farm from ear
ly spring till fall. He can begin work
IN the springss soon as tn Q frost is
out of the ground. His crops can then
be put in before his neighbor, who
has no tile down, can think of plow-
ing. What a great advantage he has
over the world all around him. He
can laugh while his Heig hbors have
the blues, especially if tits wetspring.
His crops thus get an early start and
grow before the weeds can choke
them. The crow and the blackbird
has not yet discovered that there is
corn in the ground, and 1t is not mo-
Tested by them, nor will it be troubled
SO much by worms or moles. As |
said in former article, eff the spring
ana summer is wet the surplus water
Is held like a sponge IN the deep, mel
low soil, or is carried off ia the tile
drains; and if severe drouth should
occur the same deep soil holds enough
moisture for the growing crop"
l Will now give some substantial
evidence Of the good effect of tile
draining In aspeech made at Tryus,
Jefferson County, Ind, at what IS
called a Jubilee gathering, which is
I'm oh
said in words to this amount: ''On
my farm, near North Madison, was
piece of something like five acres of
wet land, which was surrounded by
land which lay higher It was called
Goose Pond" for nothing would
grow on it but coarse grass in patches.
[ conceived the idea of tile-draining
it, and named it to some Of Rny neigh
bors who laughed at my remarks, and
said if l did drain it, it would produce
nothing, as there was no soil there
but white clay, and that the year
through was mud and water, and only
fit for geese and hogs to wallow IN.
But told them that [ would make
them laugh out of the 'tother side of
their mouths some other day. So in
as dry time as was common IN the
fall. [ put hands to ditching for the
thing, and had tile put down about
thirty feet apart and from two or three
feet apart and from two to TIRES feet
deep according as the ground lay, and
much deeper at the outlets Well,
this ground was dry early in the
spring, and had it broken up early,
narrowed it we'll, and put it in corn
In the fall | gathered fifty bushels of
corn to the acre off Of this same
goose pond" In the fall [ had it
sown III wheat among the corn, and
the next harvest [ obtained thirty
bushels of wheat TO the acre. My
neighbors now had to laugh, as [ said
they would, out of the other side Of
their mouths, to use a negroism. And
the result was [ realized more than
enough over a common crop, on COM
mon land to p y me for the thing" It
was the last crop raised on that land
up to the time of the speech.
And now / would advise farmers to
try thing all that land liable to bear
no crop Ill wet year Try it on a
small scale if you are doubtful, and
see the result. It will not break up
any man to tile q few acres If it does
no good; but am satisfied that in two
years the greater crop will pay for the
thing, and then you will have farm
producing great crops with no fail
ure.