4 [Assembly 



when first presented to the attention of our farmers but a few 

 years since, was received with distrust, now attracts attention in 

 every quarter ; and among the papers which accompany this re- 

 port, will be found the statement of a single farmer, who has 

 laid during the year, seventy-two thousand five hundre.d and fifty 

 drain tile, in trenches, varying from two and a half to three feet 

 in depth ; mailing five thousand four hundred and ninety-six 

 rods, equal to 17 miles and 56 rods. The whole cost of this ex- 

 penditure was 12i cents per rod for the tiles; and the expense 

 of preparing the trenches and laying the tiles, was 15J cents per 

 rod. Nor is this a solitary case, as there have been in various sec- 

 tions of the State, tiles laid to a large extent, though in no instance 

 has such extensive work been performed as in the case referred 

 to. When it is remembered that in 1848, John Delafield, Esq., of 

 Seneca county, introduced the first tile machine into this State, and 

 that for a considerable period it turned out more tile than there 

 was demand for, while at the present time, there are, it is believed, 

 at least from twelve to fourteen machines in operation, and the 

 demand for tile is nearly equal to the entire power of all the 

 machines, some idea may be formed of the progress which has 

 been made. That this has been so, results from the facts which 

 have been presented to the consideration of practical farmers, of 

 the great advantages resulting from thorough draining where 

 needed. In one county in this State, in 1849, the entire saving 

 of the wheat crop upon the drained lands, as compared with the 

 crops upon land undrained in the same county, which suffered 

 severely, was more than sufficient to have drained the other por- 

 tions of the county under wheat cultivation. 



It has been the constant endeavor of the Society to impress 

 upon the minds of our farmers, that to enable them to meet with 

 'success the competition which increased facilities by railroads 

 and other channels of communication are opening up to the fertile 

 western states, they must improve, not only their system of hus- 

 bandry, but must also adapt themselves to the circumstances in 

 which this competition places them. To do this effectually, a 

 new system of farming must, -in a measure, at least, be adopted? 



