VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 79 



This farm and two adjoining ones further down the stream, 

 contained broad and very wet meadows. The owners of these 

 farms at once saw what great improvement could be made upon 

 their meadows and commenced the work of draining them. In 

 a few years, without any considerable outlay, these three farms 

 from being among the poorest in that section beacme rated 

 with the best. This work was mostly done by the regular 

 farm forces in the less busy season of the year, and the stone 

 which was found upon the higher parts of the meadow and 

 pasture was used to make the drains, except a few small drains 

 upon one of them, which I now own. Two inch sole tile was 

 used. 



Perhaps enough has been said of the advantages of under- 

 draining. I think all will concede that great improvements 

 can be made upon many of our farms in that way. But then 

 comes the Yankee question, " Will it pay?" and I can only 

 give the old lady's answer, " Well, that depends." 



At the price of farms in Vermont today I would not buy a 

 low, wet farm thinking to drain it at a less cost than I could buy 

 land that had a natural drainage. But on the other hand, where 

 one is located and proposes to spend his life, can he afford to 

 give up a low meadow to a crop of inferior hay when with 

 proper drainage it may be made the most productive on the 

 farm. Such land has been accumulating fertility for ages, 

 which when the water is removed, at once becomes available. 

 The first crops from underdrained land are usually fine, although 

 some swamp and clay land need exposure to frost and sun 

 before the best results are obtained. 



Or if a spring breaks out upon a hillside and causes more 

 or less bog below, can one afford to go around this spot year 

 after year with plow, harrow, cultivator and mower in these 

 days of machinery when more than ever before time is money ? 

 I remember seeing a neighbor clearing out and draining a wet 

 rocky gulch in the middle of an otherwise smooth, fine field. 

 Some one remarked that it would cost one hundred dollars to 

 do the job and that the land would be worth about fifty dollars 

 when it was done. "Perhaps so," said the owner. "I will 

 give you the land if you will take it off out of my way, but I 

 won't have it here in the middle of this field any longer." 

 That was many years ago, and I often think of it when I go by 

 that farm, and I think now that it was a better investment than 

 a western mortgage would have been. Mr. Spaulding, the 

 owner of one of the three farms mentioned, who kept a strict 

 account, told me that the extra value of the first three crops 

 usually paid the whole cost of draining. Not all the draining 

 upon these farms was done upon low lying land, but the upland 



