90 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



except grass, and even this was too readily killed by the action 

 of winter frost. The surface soil is underlaid throughout (ex- 

 cept immediately on the ledge of rock,) by an impervious sub- 

 soil or hard pan of stiff clay, quite retentive of water. 



The first draining was done in 1852, on a piece of about one 

 and one-half acres, designed for a pear orchard. Thirteen 

 drains fifteen rods in length, and twenty feet apart, were opened 

 down the hill. The duct or channel was made by placing two 

 fiat stones apart on their edges, and letting the upper edges fall 

 together; these were wedged in place, and filled above with six 

 or eiffht inches of small cobble and broken stones. Inverted 

 turfs, or l)Oughs were then spread upon them to prevent the 

 washing of earthy particles into the drain, and the earth was 

 returned over all. These drains empty by bending at an acute 

 angle into a main drain, which is at right angles with the gen- 

 eral course of the former, following a more gentle inclination 

 westward ; and laid with flat stones, resting upon side stones, 

 covered and filled in as the others. This main, discharges the 

 water at the roadside, which has never ceased flowing from it, 

 during the coldest winter weather. The land was then ploughed 

 across the drains with six oxen, and the largest plough obtaina- 

 ble, opening a furrow twelve inches deep, in which followed a 

 subsoil plough drawn by four oxen, cutting twelve inches deeper. • 



Upon this piece of land the frost comes out some days earlier, 

 is later in fall, and of less depth in winter than in contiguous 

 land undraiued. The whole is dry enough for spading or plough- 

 ing, as soon as the frost is out in the spring, or within two hours 

 after any heavy rain. During the drought of 1854, there was, 

 at all times, suflicicnt dampness apparent on scraping the sur- 

 face of the ground (with the foot in passing), and a crop of 

 beans was planted, grown and gathered therefrom, without so 

 much rain as will usually fall in a shower of fifteen minutes 

 duration, while vegetation on the next fields was parching for 

 lack of moisture. 



The cost of two hundred and nine rods of drain, was two 

 hundred and sixteen dollars, or little over one dollar per rod, 

 equal to one hundred and forty dollars per acre. This was the 

 first attempt ; those afterwards made were quite as effectual, at 

 much less expense. 



