100 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



" We may answer briefly, they are better because they are rnoro 

 durable than any other drain, being, so far as ascertained, imper- 

 ishable -when properly laid. They are better, again, because mice 

 and other vermin cannot live in them, or destroy them. They are 

 better, because they drain more evenly than anything else. The 

 labor of excavating is much less than for other drains, as the 

 trenches may be very narrow. Finally, if the tiles can be obtained 

 at the fair price of manufacturing, say twelve dollars per thousand, 

 they are cheaper in the first cost than stone lying on the farm, 

 because they are so much more cheaply laid." 



It may be thought that undue prominence has been given to 

 the topic of drainage. If so, my apology is a belief that we 

 have in Maine a great deal of land, and much of it, the best we 

 have, too, which, by the bestowal of no amount of labor or ma- 

 nure, can be made to develop its capabilities, until it is drained. 

 It is a first step, which is necessary, in order to avail ourselves 

 of improved modes of culture. We may plough deeply, and sab- 

 soil but without drainage the land soon becomes saturated, 

 water-logged, and solid ; seeds rot as before, instead of germi- 

 nating; the little rootlets cannot penetrate so as to get food, or 

 to resist drought. Manure is often spoken of as the one thing 

 needful to farming, but without detracting one iota from its im- 

 portance, it is pertinent to ask, of what avail is manure even, if 

 some prior action be needful in order that we get the benefit of 

 it ? In short, the conviction is strong, that wherever it be ne- 

 cessary, it \Q fundamental to an improved agiiculturc. 



Root crops. 

 The object of agriculture is to furnish human food, and it 19 

 palpable upon a moment's reflection that this end may be best 

 attained by circuitous means, for if we aim simply and only at 

 the production of bread, our lands will soon become exhausted 

 and refuse to yield a subsistence. So, like a ship at sea with 

 a head wind, the farmer must take an indirect course, and by a 

 zigzag route, by roundabout ways, arrive at his point of des- 

 tination. The aim of the good farmer is to give a wide berth 

 to exhaustion and barrenness, leaving them as far out of his 

 track as possible. It being found that animal manure is the 

 most efficacious and available agency to accomplish this^ tho 



