EXPERIMEXT IN DRAINAGE. 219 



withstanding, if I could get no stone, I should use tile to 

 some extent as the next best thing, and if laid in gravelly or 

 any porous underlying strata, I should use tile of course. 

 But does it pay to underdrain such elevated, hard-pan bottom- 

 lands ? I answer. Yes ; to the realization of greater receipts 

 than in almost any other variety of circumstances. It reno- 

 vates and enlivens our loamy or clayey soils so that they 

 will receive heat and air with a greater readiness, which pre- 

 pares them for the growing of grass or other cultivated crops 

 much more vigorously and of a better quality. To what an 

 extent lands may be improved and what results may be 

 derived from draining and good cultivation, I offer you the 

 following as an illustration : — 



I came in possession of a four-acre piece of pasturage in' 

 front of my house some ten years ago, worth from five to 

 twenty dollars per acre, the preponderating product being a 

 wet, poor quality of pasturage, interspersed with a generous 

 supply of bog-brake, knolls and some bowlders. In the fall 

 of 1862 I commenced labor upon it by getting out the rocks, 

 laying one hundred and twenty rods of underdrain, broke it 

 up, employing the third man to follow the plough with a hook 

 to turn over Avhat sods and brake-knolls the plough did not. 

 In the spring of 1863 I harrowed well the turf, planted corn, 

 putting a little phosphate in the hill, cultivating with a pur- 

 pose mainly to subdue the land, and harvested twent}' bushels 

 of corn per acre. In 1864 the market- value of manure ap- 

 plied, delivered on the land, was four hundred dollars ; I 

 bought a part of it; phosphate put into the hill, fifty dollars ; 

 about the first two weeks in June, it was set with tobacco ; 

 fitting ground, cultivating, harvesting and preparing for mar- 

 ket, cost three hundred and fifty dollars ; total expenses of 

 crop, eight hundred dollars ; I received for the crop one thou- 

 sand eight hundred dollars. In 1865 I applied four hundred and 

 fifty dollars' worth of manure and fifty dollars' worth of phos- 

 phate ; stocked with tobacco ; cultivating and fitting for mar- 

 ket, three hundred and fifty dollars ; total expense, eight hun- 

 dred and fifty dollars ; I received for crop, two thousand two 

 hundred and forty dollars. After harvesting the second crop 

 I raked together the brake-heads, which, notwithstanding 

 being cuffed to skeletons, amounted to cartloads, and burned 



