254 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ceded its necessity and then explained how it might be done in a 

 cheap and substantial manner. There was another who admitted 

 the necessity but doubted the expediency of draining. There may 

 be farms which require underdraining to such an extent as that it 

 might cost more than the farm would sell for or be worth after it 

 is done. My advice in such a case would be to abandon such a 

 farm at once if it will not admit of proper and necessary improve- 

 ments, either from its location or from any other cause; the sooner 

 that /arm is abandoned the better, for nothing is worth keeping 

 that is not worth keeping well. 



The more I have reflected upon the subject of underdraining, the 

 more I am convinced of its necessity and of its expediency. The 

 cost is not great ; on our rocky farms there is material enough on 

 the ground to make as many drains as are wanted, and all the 

 expense there is about it, is in digging the ditch, the rest of the 

 cost is cancelled in saving the distance we should have to haul 

 the stone to get them off of the land ; and as many farmers are 

 constantly in the habit of breaking and working their land when 

 wet which land would be dry enough if properly drained, the 

 necessity for draining cannot be urged too strongly, for nothing 

 injures land more than working it when wet ; it ought never to be 

 done, it destroys all profit from working it at all, if cropping it be 

 the object, for certainly not more than half a crop can be raised 

 upon such land, and as I said before, manure is not worth more 

 than half price upon such land. 



Another error of farmers is feeding fields in the summer and fall 

 after haying, or in fact, at any other time. One acre of fodder 

 corn will supply as much feed as will ordinarily grow upon two 

 common farms after haying — and the present year it has supplied 

 more feed than all the hay that grew on many farms before having, 

 and the sooner we adopt ti.e ru'e not to allow stock in our fields 

 at any time except when at work, the better it will be for us 

 all. It costs us very much more to recover to fertility the fields 

 so fed than to furnish the same amount of feed in almost any other 

 way. One of the greatest objections to keeping large flocks of 

 sheep on our farms is, that it is so difficult to keep them off from 

 mowing fields in spring and fall — they rather prefer to take 

 care of themselves at all times when the snow is off the ground, 

 and ;;s t!.ey bite close, they must at times do immense damage to 

 fields if admitted to graze them. My opinion is that on the whole 

 sheep benefit the farm but little. I hear the contrary opinion 



