TRAXSACTIONS. 61 



to incur the expense of iinder-drainage. For tliis purpose, 

 the surface of the arable land, when not very steep, is 

 formed into permanent ridges varying much in breadth, ac- 

 cording to the slope, the natural moisture, or dryness of 

 the soil or local climate and the hereditary habits of the 

 district, straight or curved as the maintenance of the grade 

 may require, and from six or eight to sixty or eighty feet 

 in "width. The prejudice in favor of this practice is so 

 universal, that land is often laboriously ridged where the 

 natural inclination is evidently rapid enough to carry off 

 the water freely, and in many instances the advantages 

 must be more than compensated by the expense, the loss 

 of ground in the furrows, and other inconveniences. It 

 must not, however, be forgotten that the ridges were prob- 

 ably originally formed in many cases at a remote period, 

 soon after the forests were cleared, and that though now 

 useless they were once indispensable. The natural drying 

 of newly cleared land is a much slower process than we 

 usually imagine, and American experience has shown that 

 it goes on for generations, if not for centuries. 



The frequency of summer and early autumnal rains, the 

 abundance of snow and the danger of frost, in the Swiss 

 and Germanic districts between the spurs and along the 

 flanks of the Alps, have given rise to curious practices, 

 some of which might perhaps deserve a limited adoption 

 in our Nonhern States. Thus in Styria and elsewhere, 

 fresh-cut grain is often secured imdcr long, narrow thatch- 

 ed sheds, open at the sides and provided with a horizontal 

 rack -work resembling a rail-fence, into which the straw is 

 interwoven with the head downwards, and the grain is 

 dried under partial cover. In upland meadows in Switzer- 

 land, and more particularly in the Tyrol, the hay is of a 

 very mixed character, flowering plants of various sorts 

 being largely intermingled with the proper grasses. These 

 plants have thicker stems and more succulent foliage than 

 the grasses, and, for this reason and the moisture of the 



