UNDER-DRAINAGE. — THE DAIRY. 13 



There is scarcely a farm in this county but what contains 

 some piece which would well pay for under-draining", — some 

 unsightly hollow, some damp meadow, usually the best and 

 most productive land on the farm if properly under-drained. 

 Have you who raise strawberries for the market ever tried 

 such a piece? Did not the crop surprise you who have 

 under-drained for grass ? Two-inch tile from a neighboring 

 town can now be delivered at any depot in this county at 

 twenty dollars per thousand feet. These should be laid at a 

 depth of not less than three feet and a half, with a fall of 

 at least one inch to the rod. With the low price of labor at 

 the present time, the cost is not as much as one would at first 

 suppose. 



Probably there is no better stock for the farmer in general 

 in this vicinity than milch (jows. In order to maintain the 

 fertility of our soil, we should keep as many as possible, get 

 the best, and feed well. But what to do with the milk is the 

 problem. A few years ago, when there appeared to be an 

 unlimited demand, the prospect was good ; it is so now to a 

 certain extent : still many of us have been obliged, the past 

 summer, to sell our milk at less than the cost of production. 

 The demand for good butter is unlimited ; and my own opin- 

 ion is, that butter-making under the Harden system (that is, 

 setting the milk in deep cans at a low temperature) woidd 

 be better for many of us than selling milk at the present 

 prices. 



Some of our farmers refuse from year to year to bring up 

 their best stock to this exhibition, saying they have very 

 little chance with the petted animals of the few who gener- 

 ally take the premiums. This difficulty may be all imagi- 

 nary ; but is there not some danger that even this old society, 

 which has always so nobly excluded the race-course, shall, 

 through her committees, refuse a premium to a colt which 

 would otherwise be a valuable family or draught horse, be- 

 cause its ancestors could not show a record of less than three 

 minutes ? The impression, too, seems to have gone abroad, 

 that, under the rules of this society, none but members will 

 be allowed to take premiums. This is erroneous, as the 

 prizes are open to all residents of the county who will con- 

 form to flie printed rules and regulations. 



A great improvement has been made of late in cutting 



