DRAINAGE THE FIRST REQUISITE. 31 



acre, is worth almost any amount of labor or care or money 

 that it may have cost. There is living in my neighborhood, a 

 farmer who has made his own way in the world, who was born 

 and brought up upon a farm, who is not a rich man, by any 

 means, although he has a little money in the bank, who paid 

 $377 an acre for four acres of land in grass, four or five years 

 ago. From that time to this, that land has never been ploughed, 

 nor had anything done to it, except that he has kept it well top- 

 dressed with seaweed, and he told me the other day that it was 

 one of the best investments he ever made, for notwithstanding 

 the high price, the crop of grass was so good, it always gave him 

 satisfactory interest for his money. Now, the secret of the fer- 

 tility of that field lies simply in the fact, that it was for many 

 years an onion patch. It was thoroughly cultivated, and so put 

 into a condition that it will never forget. So long as it receives 

 a sufficient top-dressing, it will probably remain in grass year 

 after year. Now, what we want to know is, how to make all 

 land on which we produce grass, onion fields. It does not cost 

 much. If we cannot take the land in its present condition and 

 cultivate it and manure it, simply for the sake of the grass, let 

 us put it into some crop that will pay for more thorough culti- 

 vation and manuring, and bring it in the end into a condition 

 where it will produce two and a half tons of hay to the acre. 

 I believe much more is possible, on good land, but that is 

 enough for a good profit. 



In commencing the preparation of land in this way, no 

 matter whether our intention is to plough it and seed it directly 

 and bring it into condition by the use of manure, or to improve 

 it gradually by a long period of cultivation, the first thing we 

 must look to is draining the land ; and as the time is short, I 

 will confine myself entirely to this branch of the subject. 

 Everything else connected with it you all of you sufficiently 

 understand : the importance of manure, the importance of 

 thorough cleanliness, and all that. Rut it seems to me that 

 farmers generally, not only in New England but throughout the 

 country, fail to appreciate the necessity for thorough under- 

 draining, and do not know exactly how underdraining should 

 be done to secure the best results. There is one almost insu- 

 perable objection to this method of improvement, and that is, 

 its very great cost. But the reason why it is so expensive, — 



