252 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I hope that every year will add to the ambition of tlie far- 

 mers of Connecticut, that they will every year strive to occu- 

 py a higher station, and that they will every year acquire a 

 better knowledge of the great principles of science. 



These things I wished to say, and before I take my seat I 

 wish to say one or two words more. I most heartily concur in 

 the opinions which Col. Mead has expressed here, and if I can 

 intensify tliem by anything I can say I desire to do so. I be- 

 lieve, Mr. President, that there is scarcely a man in the Uni- 

 ted States who has seen as many farmers and examined so 

 many agricultural processes, over the whole length and 

 breadth of the Union, as I have ; and, sir, I wish to say, as 

 the result of that experience, that I have never known a sin- 

 gle well-directed effort toward draining that was unsuccessful. 

 I have never seen a drain well put in that did not pay at least 

 ten per cent, upon its cost, and I have seen them pay 150 per 

 cent, on their cost, the very first year of their operation. 

 Drainage lies at the very basis of all successful farming. Your 

 manures have double the value when the land is drained that 

 they had before. A wagon load of manure on drained land 

 is worth two wagon loads on undrained land. In fact, there 

 is no comparison whatever. However much you may in- 

 crease the manure you put on your land, it is impossible, on 

 undrained lands ever to raise crops which in amount or in 

 quality shall compare with those on drained lands. If you 

 are really to follow out the line of progress which I have in- 

 dicated, this is the way you must begin. This lies at the 

 foundation. 



I have said that I have never seen an unsuccessful effort 

 when land was well drained. I have seen a great many 

 ditches and drains put in where there was not a particle of 

 benefit from it, and why ? Because ordinary and common 

 intelligence was not applied to the work. It is improperly 

 laid drains which have produced in the minds of farmers 

 that feeling which finds vent in the opprobrium they 

 cast upon the efforts of their neighbors in that direction. If 

 you make a drain zig-zag, up hill and down, you cannot ex- 

 pect it to be of any advantage whatever. The bottom of a 



