44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



There is in Essex County a very famous farm, well known to 

 those of us who reside in that section. It belongs to Major 

 Poore, the "Washington correspondent of the " Boston Journal," 

 known as " Perley." He inherited the farm from his father, 

 who spent a vast amount of money in drainage. There were 

 no tiles then. This land was drained as early as 1815 or 1820, 

 I should say. The field to which particular attention was paid 

 was a large meadow of something like forty acres, through 

 which a small rivulet trickled. Mr. Poore desired to convert 

 it into a large grass field, and employed a Scotch drainer and 

 ditcher to put it into condition. It was thoroughly laid with 

 stone drains, as accurately and carefully as that experienced 

 Scotchman could lay them. You can stand upon an adjoining 

 hill and overlook that field, and you can see to-day the lines of 

 those drains by the water grasses that are growing over them. 

 I don't suppose there has been a passage for water through those 

 ditches for more than twenty-five years. I don't believe there is 

 in Essex County to-day, on any piece of land that is fit to be 

 drained (and I am saying now really what I mean), a stone 

 drain that is performing its service properly and well. The 

 reasons why, every man must judge for himself. 



Now, we have certain land to be drained. Perhaps Col. 

 Waring would lay down stronger rules with regard to the 

 draining of land than I should. I don't think so much land 

 needs draining in this country as we suppose. I conceive, in 

 the first place, that a bog meadow had better be let alone. Muck 

 lands I would avoid entirely, so far as drainage is concerned. 

 I don't think they come within the range of farming business, 

 especially if you have three acres of muck land and two acres 

 of high land adjoining. I would devote myself to the upland and 

 let the muck land go. I don't think that lands that are drained 

 by natural slopes, unless for some reason the springs are high 

 in them, require drainage, and for that reason, I find a great 

 many of the farms of our ancestors produced enormous crops 

 of grass, grain and vegetables without any drainage at all. 

 There is a great deal of natural drainage in this country. I 

 know that the lands which Col. Waring has, and some land 

 which I have, need drainage. They are precisely analogous 

 to the clay lands of Scotland and England, which are so well 

 drained there by tiles. Those are lands fit to drain. The land 



