secretary's report. 89 



The Effects of Underground Draining. 



A Report to the Bangor Hortmdtural Society. 



"Your committee, appointed at the annual meeting, to 'visit 

 B. F. Noiirse's farm in Orrington, to witness and report upon 

 the effect of underground draining,' now submit for your con- 

 sideration the following statement, from facts communicated by 

 Mr. Nourse, and from knowledge obtained by personal inspec- 

 tion. 



At tlie time of our visit in early summer, there was but one 

 expression of satisfaction, not only from each individual mem- 

 ber of the committee, but from all the invited guests, at the ap- 

 pearance of the farm, the buildings, fences, and crops. Although 

 the season had been wet, yet tlie land was dry ; the grass, grain, 

 corn and trees were making a vigorous growth, being clothed 

 with a richness of verdure which gave promise of abundant har- 

 vests. They all bore testimony to a careful, intelligent, scien- 

 tific culture. Comparing this land with certain other portions 

 of similar character in the vicinity, which had not received the 

 same treatment, the contrast was very perceptible. The one 

 was light, porous, arable and free from water; the other hard, 

 lumpy, cohesive or miry. The one had been drained, the other 

 drowned. 



The whole farm lies upon the northerly inclination of a hill, 

 several hundred feet above tide water, and extends to the sum- 

 mit. The super soil is generally clay loam with some gravel; 

 the latter is present in some places, in sufficient quantity to 

 constitute gravelly loam. Near the top of the hill, the loam 

 rests directly upon a ledge of rock similar to that which crests 

 the neighboring hills, and this ledge appears at the surface in a 

 few spots of one or two rods extent each. AVhen cleared and 

 ploughed, enough loose stones and boulders of granite were ex- 

 posed on the surface to build the external walls. It might be 

 called a 'rocky' farm. With the exception of two places, each 

 of about two acres, the whole farm was wet and 'springy,' unfit 

 for ploughing or any other agricultural process until quite late 

 in spring or early summer. Water is found everywhere quite 

 near the surface. The deepest well on the premises, dug in the 

 dry season of 1854, extends down only thirteen feet. The ex- 

 cess of water made it cold and rather discouraging for any crop 



