9^ BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



great public lUiiity; and we cannot too strongly recommend it 

 to every horticulturist and agriculturist. 



When these drains, with subsoil ploughing, shall be univer- 

 sally used, then will that desideratum be attained, ' two spears 

 of grain will grow instead of one ; ' then emphatically, ' the 

 wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and 

 the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.' 



All of which is respectfully presented by 



J. C. Weston, ^ 



A. NOYES, 



W. GooDALE, y Committee. 

 OiiEN Favor, 

 E. P. Baldwin, ^ 

 Bangor, Sept. 12th, 1856." 



Subsequently to the examination reported upon as above, in- 

 quiry of Mr. Nourse, as to some additional points, elicited the 

 following reply : 



" Goodale's Corner P. 0., 



•dale's Corner P. 0., > 



(Orrington) .Oct. 11, 1856. 5 



Dear Sir : — In a report made by a committee of the Bangor 

 Horticultural Society, (a copy of which has been sent to you) 

 my experiments in thorough draining have been so well de- 

 scribed, that but little is left for me to say in answer to your 

 inquiries on that subject. All told, I have laid about three and 

 one-half miles of covered drains, laying dry nearly twenty acres 

 of land, most of it quite thoroughly. So far as time has 

 afforded effects or results, they are all that theory claims, and 

 as beneficent as those elsewhere obtained by the same means. 



This draining is one of the processes of agriculture, which, 

 once well and properly done, needs no repeating on the same 

 land ; and what is far more important, its benefits increase with 

 the lapse of time. We may plough for the crop of one year, 

 and it is no less needful to plough for the next crop; we may 

 enrich the soil with manure, it will decompose and pass away, 

 and again we must manure ; and so with nearly all our crop- 

 producing operations, they must be repeated at frequently re- 

 curring periods. But while our drains take off the surplus 

 ■water at once, and thus show an immediate (and I think remu- 



