Year: 1869




made, are the lu'tys of the land. They
enable the air to percolate through
it. Any farmer who has dug cellar or
well, if he has thrown ont dense clay
loan, and left it exposed to the air, will
have noticed the great rank plants start
ing out of cold lifeess clay. Any farmer
may see, if he will, clay deposit, ten
thousand years old, become not merely
feasible, but a fertile and easily cdItivat.
ed soil by means of judicious draining
We have in our State of New York, a
tract Of excellent grape land. 1t is locat-
ed, not in the warmest and sunniest part
Of the State-but in the Western Central
part--l500 feet above the level of the
sea. And it is grape land, because it has
a porous slaty texture, INTO which the air
and the water easily insinuate themselves.
There we raise beautiful grapes. In Il
regibn north Of this we grow the most de-
icate Isabellas, Catawbas, and other va
rlet.es. II is because the soil is so porous
as to be naturally drained Corn grows
there very rapidly and ripens out Of reach
of the early frosts, and Indian Corn is a
plant that requires degree of tempera-
ture to ripen, at least twenty degrees
higher than wheat, and soil that has been
well underdrained is practically five to
ten degrees warmer in consequence. Ii
draining improves the land so much for
wheat, we argue that for Indian corn its
advantages are still greater.


You have oil observed the sweating of
pitcher of water in a. warm day. You
know that not drop of water ever sweat
through that pitcher, but that the moisture
was precipitated from tile atmosphere by
the colducss Of the pitcher. The sweat
ing pitcher condenses this moisture simply
because it is colder than the air. Now
this illustrates the drainage of land. The
moisture of the atmosphere meeting the
colder surface of the ground, is condensed.
Though the air may be dry, as in time
Of drouth, still it gives forth MOISTURE
Now | hold that drainage will actually
increase the amount of moisture retained
in the soil i'll dry time, and largely aid
the growing crops: 1t tends to keep tie
sJil porous, and sensitive to the least de:
gree of moisture condensed from the at
mosphere!


1t is true that we cannot afford the ex-
pensive style now generally adopted in
England. The first cost in England il
twenty-five to fifty dollars per acre, and
we cannot drain so cheaply as they can!
We cannot dig ditch so cheaply nor SO
well as they can do it. We do not under.
stand the art Of making and laying tie
tile, and the tile will cost us four times
what it does in England.


But there is systt m Of draining With.
out tile, which as beginning, am con.
Gdent would largely increase the fertility
Of our lands. | will simply describe it,
so that any that choose may easily try il
for themselves.


1t is i simple mole-a rounded piece Of
steel-perhaps three feet long. which
will liken to a rolliug-pih sharpened at one
end, and a standard fixed on the top te
hold it by. Now then, with that mole
ploao, with a strong team. Drive it thro
the earth, from the upper side of yoal
field, until you gridiron the entire field
Then walk back and forth and tread dowr
the surface, where necessary to tunnel i
over, and you will have not quite per
feet but still serviccable system of drain
age, and that field, if it be grass, viii
maintain its strength for fifteen or twenty
years.


recomHieiid this, not as the best thing
but as the cheapest thing, so cheap tina
the poorest farmer may try il If he will
) and canhot try it without experiencin!
great benefits from it. In my judgmen
the value Of land for farming purposes j
improved fully one-third by draining
On tfy farm were fifteen acres Of prett,
bad bog. which bad been farmed afount
for two hundred years, and had ueve
produced crop which anybody but
Frenchmen wotld eat. There was away
a liberal crop 6f frogs with some mud
turtles and musk-ruts. I drained it, AM
made II the best land l have. Loos
stone may be put in beside drain, If Their
is no more Convenient way Of disposing o
them, but the tife drain, especially for
heavy hard soil at the bottom is drai
that is steadily increasing in favor.
I believe that great deal Of the lam
$ should never be cleared. In Vermont
every farmer cultivates too much land
: and you grass farmers worse thah otheri
! You slash away the forest upsparlngly 70
! the sake Of getting more land under cult