lOG Bureau or Farmers' Institutes. 



was any manure scattered on the top and soaked up in the water, 

 some of the fertility is gone; but I would rather lose a portion of 

 it than be compelled to drag out my manure after the frost is out 

 of the ground. 



Mr. Throp. — This tile we are talking about is about four feet 

 down in the ground. If there is any fertility in the water that 

 floats on the soil, it is going to be filtered out before it reaches the 

 tile, and be kept in tbe soil. I have been watching some people 

 in my neighborhood who have been putting in quite a number of 

 thousand feet of tile. Two or three years ago, in fact, one young 

 man put in 20,000 feet at one time, in one season. He hired a lot 

 of men and they came and tile-drained diagonally across eighty 

 acres, which was almost a worthless piece of ground before he 

 began. That slough ran down for miles, and the water came 

 coursing down through there in the spring on each side of the 

 ditch. It was a boggy marsh. Part of it he could mow and part 

 of it he couldn't. He put in 20,000 feet of tile^ and the result is 

 that he plows the whole thing now, and those eighty acres are the 

 most valuable he has on his farm. I asked him if he thought 

 he would do any more, and he tells me as soon as he can he is 

 going to tile all his land that needs it. Another man I know, 

 lives along Horicon marsh. The marsh extends in the shape of 

 sloughs around up through his farm. He commenced tiling there, 

 and I guess he will never get done. He manages to get good crops 

 where he does tile; so much better crops than he used to get that 

 he buys his tile by the carload, and his neighbors are following 

 suit and putting in carloads of tile in the same kind of places. 

 So it seems to me that there must be something in it, if we are 

 unfortunate enough to have that kind of land. I am very glad 

 I haven't that kind of land, mj^self. 



There is one point that the gentleman did not touch on, and that 

 is in regard to the water flowing on to the other man's land. You 

 had better get his consent. This last man I spoke of putting in 

 so much tile was troubled with the water in the spring flowing 

 over from his neighbor's land and down through his. He wanted 

 him to go in with him and put in a 10-inch tile through there 



