FREQUEXCY OF DRArN^S. 217 



springs on adjoining lands, or stagnant water. Having be- 

 come acquainted with the fountains thereabouts, observation 

 and reason in connection with the surface or slope of the land 

 will readily suggest the course, depth and number of drains 

 necessary to accomplish the desired object. Writers tell us 

 that drains should be run up and down slopes once in thirty 

 or forty feet, in order t ) drain eflfectually. My experience is 

 against that. It naturally is and must be the question with 

 common ftirmers. How fiir can I go, how much money can I 

 spend in any scheme of improvement and make it pay, as we 

 cannot afford capital, labor or time without a full equivalent ? 

 Hence the necessity of studying rigid economy in reclaiming 

 land by draining, in going just so far as will pay a good per 

 cent, profit for the investment, considering the benefit that 

 will accrue to the several crops that may hereafter be raised 

 thereon, the increased value of the land, and advantage from 

 the various fertilizing agents applied. I have found in drain- 

 in"" different plots of land from two to four acres each, on a 

 slope of from one to five degrees, that they can be sufficiently 

 drained for cultivation "With about one-half of the lemrth of 

 drain proposed by some, if judiciously laid out and thoroughly 

 laid down. 



For instance, in draining a piece of land twenty-four rods 

 square on a slope of from two to four degrees, with parallel 

 drains running up and down the slope, once in forty feet 

 would necessitate ten drains of twenty-four rods each, — two 

 hundred and forty. I have drained such a piece of land for 

 the successful cultivation of all kinds of crops, tobacco not 

 excepted, with half the above number of rods, by running two 

 main drains up and down the slope equidistant, with three 

 branch drains upon each side, six rods each, with angles a 

 little acute up the slope, making in all one hundred and 

 twenty rods ; the drains being placed from four to six rods 

 apart, upon the upper portion, which so successfully drains 

 that portion that there is nothing needed below, unless there 

 is some living spring. Said drains were dug three feet deep, 

 a depth which will receive the superabundance of water at the 

 top of the hard-pan very rapidly, leaving the soil in a suitable 

 state for cultivation very quickly ; the drain was dug by 

 ploughing a narrow double-furrow, pitching the turf into 

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