200 STATE BOAKD OF AGEICULTUEE. 



believe that nearly all clay lands would be greatly benefited by tile draining. 

 The remarks made by the gentleman in regard to care in lawing the tile should 

 be well Aveighcd, es-pecially if the drain pastes through a bed of quicksand. 



Mr. Inger.'oll. — Quicksand is the worst thing Ave have to contend with in 

 laying tile. The best plan is to cover each joint, as fast as you get it laid, with 

 sod or clay. The fall of the drains on the College farm is about one-tenth of 

 an incli to the rod, or thirty-two inches to the mile. 



Charles E. Mickley. — There is no >'ubject connected with the farm in which 

 I am more interested than that of tile draining. I have had considerable expe- 

 rience in the work, and I feel like endorsing what has been said in relation to 

 exercising care in laying your tile. If this work is not well done you will soon 

 see the necessity of doing the work over again. I have, on my farm, three 

 miles of drain, and I think every rod of the tile I laid myself. My ditch digging 

 is done by one man, Mr. Beck, and I can recommend him to all the citizens of 

 this county who want work of this kind done. I have put in a great deal of 

 board drain, which was cheaply made and worked to good advantage. I take, 

 for instance, two pieces of board for the sides, covered with a strip of plank on 

 top, leaving the bottom open. My ditch digging costs me $2 50 a day, and I 

 consider it cheap labor at that price. So far as the benefit to the soil is con- 

 cerned, where drains are properly constructed, I am well satisfied ; and I am 

 confident there is nothing needed so much in Lenawee county to increase her 

 yield of agricultural products as a thorough system of drainage. 



C. 11. Potter, Madison. — I have a marsh of five or six acres which about 15 

 years ago I drained enough to carry off the surface water. I mowed ic for many 

 years, and finally put in tile drain. I thought there was plenty of fall at the 

 time, and I put in my tile 2^ feet deep. Last fall I plowed the marsh, and in 

 a great many places the plow would strike the tile. 



E. Beats, Dover. — I have five acres of marsh on which I have 150 rods of 

 drain. It was the current talk that it had a quicksand subsoil. A portion of 

 it was covered with shaking poplars. I constructed my drain of boards, leaving 

 the hole inside four inches square. In many places, when we were laying the 

 drain, the soil was not sufficiently firm to sustain the weight of the boards, and 

 the ends of the box would settle down. We obviated that by getting straw and 

 putting it around these joints. This drain has been laid five years, and is still 

 doing good service. Last year I had a splendid crop of timothy on this field, 

 and the year before I raised 23 bushels of wheat to the acre. That shows me 

 the great benefit in tile draining. 



Prof. A. J. Cook was next called upon, who gave his lecture on "^The Three 

 Worst Insects." (See lectures and discussions following this record.) 



AFTEKNOON SESSIO?^. 



At the close of the discussion which followed Prof. Cook's lecture. Prof. E. 

 C. Kedzie gave his lecture on "Plaster." (See lectures and discussions as 

 above.) 



Pres. T. C. Abbot was next called upon, who gave an address on the "Agri- 

 cultural College." At the close of Pres. Abbot's address Hon. Chas. E. 

 Mickley was called upon, who addressed tlie audience as follows : 



I have been very much interested with the discourse of President Abbot, and 

 feel like endorsing what he has said. I think it was in 1863 that I first visited 

 the college, and I had rather an unfavorable impression of it ; not of the central 



