88 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



in vain, and yet farmers will persist in hopeless endeavors to raise crops under just such 

 conditions aa these; and thus it is that many millions of acres of grain and fruit are 

 annually lost to our country. 



At a time when whole nations of men and women are perishing for want of food, 

 6uch losses are calamities of gigantic proportion. 



At a time when science and intelligence are directing and controlling nearly every 

 department of human labor and activity, it is a matter of wonder and surprise that so 

 many of the cultivators of the soil, should persist in squandering their time and their 

 energies, in vain endeavors to grow crops of grain and fruit, in violation of the most 

 obvious laws and principles that govern vegetable life. 



An eminent writer and philosopher has well said, that " our Creator no doubt means 

 all things in our world to be perfect in the end ; but he has not made them perfect ; he 

 has left room for growth and progress, and it is a task laid on his intelligent creatines, 

 to be fellow-workers with him in finishing that work which he has left incomplete, 

 merely that they may have an honorable work in completing it." 



It is quite evident that our world was not finished on the day of creation. The 

 wondrous forces of nature have been busy ever since pushing on the work to comple- 

 tion. Man has also been busy for ages, sometimes wisely, sometimes stupidly busy, in 

 endeavors to finish that which was left incomplete. The present low condition in 

 which we find Agriculture and Horticulture, hear witness how very imperfectly he has 

 performed the task assigned him to do. 



Indeed I am free to confess, that thought and observation combined with some 

 recent experiments, have brought me to the deliberate conclusion, that the job of 

 finishing up this world of ours can never be completed until a considerable portion of 

 it is well under-drained ; and I do not know but I am safe in saying, until it is well 

 tile-drained. Very certain it is, that there arc immense and untold resources in air and 

 earth, all intended for the benefit of the human race, that can never be made available 

 for the purposes for which they were intended until a vast amount of ditching is done. 

 Nature has already provided on a most magnificent scale for the under-draining of 

 extensive tracts of country, but the richer, the better, the greater portions of earth's 

 surface can never be drained by any channels now existing, or that nature ever can or 

 will provide. This is a task that has been assigned to man to do. And this he must 

 do at his peril. If he will not drain, he shall not use or enjoy. 



That there may be improvements made on the present methods of draining is quite 

 possible, perhaps probable. The best method now known to science or to the practical 

 world, is that by means of round tiles. This is a fortunate circumstance for us in 

 Illinois. Our State abounds at various localities, in the material, and in the resources 

 necessary to manufacture tiles on a large scale, and there is no reason why they should 

 not be made and transported at fair and reasonable prices. 



Now there are many and urgent reasons why this subject of tile-draining should be 

 thoroughly discussed by this Association, and why it should be pressed at once upon 

 the attention of the people of this great prairie State. 



1. We have a very rich soil, ranging I suppose, from one to three feet in depth over 

 nearly the entire State. There is probably no other body of land in these States equal 

 to it in size, that can at all compare witli it in richness in the elements of fertility. 

 Now this immense bed of soil rests almost invariably on a tight sub-soil. The eon se- 

 quence is that one season with another, a large portion of this soil is saturated with 



