UNDERDRAINING. 125 



horse-rakes, and horse-hoes, and well-balanced shovels, and 

 seed-sowers, and rock-lifters, and stump-pullers arc all praised 

 for the benefits they have bestowed upon mankind, and no 

 man thinks of returning to the primitive implements which 

 have long lain neglected by the side of these improvements. 

 But these men dealt with the surface of the whole matter ; 

 while he who taught us that by "frequent drainage" with 

 tiles our land might be warmed and freed from stagnant water, 

 and enabled to resist drought and defy flood, prepared the 

 way for a system of agriculture which has already enriched 

 England and Scotland, and may also enrich our own county — 

 a system which furnishes opportunity for the best implements 

 of husbandry and gives them their true value. Tile draining 

 was a long step in advance, from which there should be no 

 step backward. And when we return to the plough of the 

 Puritans, and to sun-burnt manure heaps, then may we return 

 also to stone drains, and watch the water grasses growing over 

 the very spot where the stones were buried. 



Salem, November 14, 1859. 



Statement of William R. Putnam. 



My experiments in draining have been so recent, that 1 

 feel that I have but little information to give that will be 

 of practical use. 



The field to which your attention was called contains a little 

 more than four acres. It is situated near the bottom of a 

 large hill, which rises about two hundred feet above the 

 field. The soil is a rocky loam, resting upon a hard gravel 

 subsoil ; the loam varies from one to three feet in depth ; 

 the slope of the field is to the north-east. It has been so 

 cold and wet in the spring, that it could not be planted 

 until late in the season. The practical question with me 

 was, how to dispose of the surplus water. Some advised 

 me to plough the land into ridges and open surface drains. 

 From my experience in an adjoining lot with surface drains, 

 I found they washed so deep, that I had to fill them up. 

 From my first experiment with covered drains, I thought 

 they drained the pocket more than the land. This was a 



