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1. What is the best road for our people, taking into con- 

 sideration price, durability, &c.? 



'■•.2. What is the best system of draining and ditching our 

 swamp lands? 



3. The comparative value of the different kinds of grasses, 

 and their adaptation to different soils ? 



The Society then adjourned. 



Saturhay, January 24. 



Mr. CocKRUM was called to the chair. 



The question discussed was, " What is the best mode of 

 draining swamp lands in the State." 



Mr. McDonald of Lake said, that the best mode was that 

 one best adapted to the particular locality. In some places 

 where lands overflowed from streams rising above their 

 banks, dikes or levees could most advantageously be resorted 

 to. In other places where a sufficient fall could be had, a 

 deep ditch cut in the direction the water moved is the best 

 mode. Connected with this main ditch, branches ought to 

 be made, for they would more thoroughly drain the land. 

 Very often all that was necessary was to cut away the thick 

 sod of the wild grasses, for the water would wash out the 

 sand beneath, and form of itself a channel sufficiently deep. 

 But there was another mode, made necessary by the pecu- 

 liarity of the causes that formed the swamps of the Kankakee. 

 This river had obstructions in it, which had caused it to 

 make large bends, overflowing much land in its circuitous 

 course. By cutting a canal across these bends, this land 

 would be drained. Between what it is called the highland 

 and the bank of the river, there are swamps which on ac- 

 count of their being wet when the bank was dry, has led 

 many to suppose these swamps to be loweir than the river 

 itself. He thought this was not the case, but the springs 

 flowing from the highland in their way to the river and its 



