STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 93 



The cost of working the ground to a depth of eighteen inches, when the roots are 

 rotted, I estimate at $10 per acre, and the nexl Bis inches will probably cost $10 more 



The cost of tile draining two rods apart and three feet deep, should not exceed $40 

 per acre — everything counted. Possibly the tiles can be laid four feet deep for that 

 money. 



The great practical question now arises: Will it pay'/ I think it will, for ordinary 

 farm crops, pay fifty per cent, annually on the cost ; and in fruit growing the profits 

 will >ie much larger. I doubt not that in the strawberry crop, many times the total 

 cost of drainage and Bub-soiling will be returned annually, in Increased profits, in 

 orcharding, it i* probably a question not only of larger and fairer crops, but of perma- 

 nent health of trees, and of freedom from many of the scourges that pursue tin' fruit- 

 grower, witli such terrible exhortations to a better life — L <\, a more thorough and 

 generous culture. 



Mr. Emerson, who is a philosopher among common things, as well as in the poetic 

 and divine, once said in an Agricultural address, " By drainage we have gone to the 

 subsoil, and we have found a Concord under Concord, a Middlesex under Middlesex, 

 and a basement story of Massachusetts, more valuable than all the super-structure." 

 Let us investigate this basement story under Illinois, that we may not be thoughl 

 lacking in the upper story! Let us remember that every inch in depth of soil which 

 we can pulverize, aerate, and bring within the reach of plant roots, will add one hun- 

 dred tons of available, supporting nutriment for those roots to the acre — an equivalent 

 for many generous crops. 



Instead of buying more acres of surface, let us work the wealthy acres lying under 

 those which our eyes are acquainted with, and which have been waiting to enrich as, 

 from " the beginning." 



DRAINAGE DISCUSSION. 



Spaulding — I would like, with the permission of tlie society, to 

 ask a few questions. In the first place, how far will tile draining do 

 away with the necessity for surface-drainage? 



Earle — I have a friend who has under-drained a hill-side, ami he 

 informs me that he has had no surface washing since he put in his 

 drains, three feet deep, and I think two rods apart. The subsoil 

 was clay that would hold water perhaps twenty-four hours in spring. 



Turner — There is always a current of air from the earth up- 

 wards. Some of the tricks of perpetual motion depend upon this 

 principle. Warm air contains latent moisture as it rises. If earth 

 is pulverized, the laden air sinks with the loose earth and leaves its 

 moisture. Hence, the man who ploughs all day prepares showers at 

 night. Perhaps one-fifth of all moisture gets into the earth in this 

 way. Drainage deepens this process. My under : drained grounds 



