FAEM IMPROVEMENTS. 107 



Value of maple wood at S6 per cord, 

 " pine " 3 " . 



12^ tons of hay at $25 per ton, 



Total, 



Net profit, .... 

 Total net profit on the six acres, 



The Committee saw enough to enable them to judge that 

 the crops were not overestimated ; but for the amount of 

 work which must have been done they think Mr. Dane's 

 estimate of cost is too low. Mr. Dane kept no account at the 

 time, not expecting to enter his land for premium, and he 

 depends much on memory for the details. He states, how- 

 ever, that a large part of the labor w^as done in the winter, 

 and at very cheap rates. But the excess of profit shown by 

 the above statement is large enough to cover a much higher 

 estimate of cost, and even if we should allow the expenses to 

 be as great as the return, which cannot possibl}^ be the case, 

 the increased value of the land, and the removal of the former 

 ofi'ensive and unwholesome exhalations are sufficient to make 

 the w^ork remunerative. 



The Committee, however, cannot withhold their belief that 

 open ditches, such as Mr. Dane has dug, are the poorest way 

 of draining wet lands. They soon become obstructed by the 

 caving in of the soil and the accumulation of vegetable mat- 

 ter, so as to prevent the free passage of the water, and the 

 ■work has to be done over again, or the land and crops relapse 

 into the poor and valueless condition from which they were 

 temporarily reclaimed. Good, permanent work is almost 

 always the cheapest in the end, and a drain of tile or stones 

 properly laid will far outlast the open ditches, be more eflect- 

 ive, allow the passage of teams, make cultivation easier, and 

 be finally the most economical. 



Already parts of the ditches on this meadow are so choked 

 as to be unequal to the work they ought to do, and in such 

 places the cultivated grass is giving way to the coarse and 

 reedy herbage natural to wet localities. Still, so far as it has 

 been completed, the Committee judge Mr. Dane's experiment 



