UNDERDRAININa. 149 



saw the finest clover crops there I ever saw in my life, and the 

 best crops of carrots. He did it, in the first place, by draining-, 

 and then by the application of clay and horse manure. 



Judge French took so much interest in this work of reclaiming 

 that farm, that he left his business and went to England, on pur- 

 pose to study the whole theory and practice of draining, and there 

 he spent a summer in visiting the best estates in that country. 

 You are aware, probably, tliajb draining in England is a national 

 matter. It has even been sustained by act of Parliament. In 

 years past, when the corn laws were repealed, and the farmers 

 there were left to compete with all the world in the prices of 

 wheat, draining saved the agricultural interests of the kingdom 

 from bankruptcy. The people found out, long ago, that draining 

 is the best thing that can be done ; they make money out of it. 



Now, Judge French has written a book on "Farm Drainage ;" 

 and he is one of the most pleasaiit writers in the world ; his book 

 is as interesting as a novel. It is the leading work on the subject 

 in this country. It was written long before Mr. Waring wrote 

 his book, and long before Mr. Klippart of Ohio, wrote his book, 

 and entirely exhausts the subject. I advise everybody who wants 

 to drain to obtain that book. He will find instead of the dollar 

 and a half that it costs, it will be worth fifty dollars to him, if he 

 has a farm of fifty or a hundred acres to be drained. 



I have given some attention to this matter myself, and with the 

 most satisfactory results. I will only state one experiment which 

 I made. My house, in Concord, Mass., is twenty-three feet above 

 the river, but on the slope of a hill, with a valley behind it, into 

 which the water drains from the still higher land. I drained it 

 according to Mr. French's instructions. The hassocks on a por- 

 tion of the meadow were from three to ten inches- high, so that we 

 did not cut the grass with the mowing machine. The ha}'' was 

 worth about ten dollars a ton when harvested, and the meadow 

 had been mowed, according to tradition, for more than a hundred 

 years in succession, and never plowed. It was about the hardest 

 ploughing I ever attempted ; so difficult, that I had to alter the 

 plough, by widening out the share three or four inches ; and then, 

 at every rod, a man had to follow with an axe and cut the furrow, 

 or else it would not roll over. It was so springy with roots I 

 could* scarcely do anything with it. I did not plough the land, or 

 seed it, or add a spoonful of manure to it of any kind ; and four 

 years afterwards, I went over a portion of the meadow, with the 



