UNDERDRAINING. 115 



that at that time we had a most copious rain — two inches and 

 a half in twenty-four hours. On the morning of the 18th the 

 centre of my field presented the appearance of a lake, and I 

 began to fear that I was again to lose my crop — at least that 

 portion of it covered by the flood. In twelve hours, however, 

 the water was gone, and, with the exception of a spot about 

 four feet square, no vegetation on the field suffered in the least. 

 After removing the crop this autumn, a portion of the field was 

 subsoiled, but more of it was ploughed in ridges, backing each 

 furrow for the more perfect action of the frost. I propose to 

 finish subsoiling in the spring. I found, on ploughing, this 

 autumn, great uniformity in the quality of the soil throughout 

 the field, and wherever the clay was turned up by the plough, 

 it had lost its tenacious texture. The subsoil plough penetrated 

 with more than twenty per cent, less draught than was required 

 the year before. 



In speaking of the crops raised upon this piece of land during 

 the two years since it was underdrained, I have referred to the 

 corn crop of 1857 and the root crop of 1858. An extended 

 comparison of these two crops may not be inappropriate here, 

 or uninteresting. I do not pretend that sixty bushels of corn 

 to the acre is such a crop as our farmers ought to raise ; still it 

 is above the average. And as my land was not suited to corn, 

 naturally, and had not been drained a sufficient length of time 

 to adapt it to any crop, I must make a proper allowance. I 

 should have stated that four and a half acres of the field have 

 been cultivated since the drainage — one acre still being con- 

 tinued in grass, having been laid down the year before the 

 draining was accomplished. On these four and a half acres 

 there were raised two hundred and seventy bushels of corn, for 

 the expense of raising which, I will accept a very common esti- 

 mate, and allow that it was fully repaid by the fodder. I am 

 by no means sure that the fodder on an acre of corn will pay 

 for the ploughing and labor of manuring, and planting, and 

 hoeing, and cutting, and housing, and husking, to say nothing 

 of the cost of the eight or ten cords of manure which must be 

 used in the cultivation. I have never found that it did pay 

 these expenses. Still, in making the comparison, I will grant 

 that it does, and consider two hundred and seventy bushels of 



