376 State Board of AoRicrrTURE, &c. 



on a plowed ivAd, it would sooner dry after a rain, and the 

 dark look to be seen on wet plowed ] and wonld soonest dis- 

 appear over the tiles. 



I would not wish to bo understood as deprecating any of 

 these adjuncts in drainage. If we wish to do the work in 

 the most approved style there are many little extras that 

 can be used ; but I have tried to disrobe it of all super- 

 fluties, and make it appear as plain, cheap and common- 

 place as possible, that it may not strike a dread to those 

 unaccustomed to seeing the work done. 



I have made no allusion to the actual cost per acre, for 

 the reason that draining is done under such a variety of 

 circumstances that, at best, it would be ;irbitrary. For 

 instance, it would cost less per acre on a iifty acre lot than 

 on a single acre. Again, one lot may be a muck meadow, 

 which can be spaded out and the pick not used at all ; 

 while another may liave a hard-pan at two feet in depth, 

 which almost defies tlie pick, and still another may be 

 almost tilled with stones, some of which are so large they 

 must eitlier be split or blasted ; again, a field may have a rock 

 bed for its outlet, which must be lowered, at considerable 

 expense, before commencing with the ditching proper. 



In the fifty acre field to which reference was had in the 

 fore part of our paper, in which three thousand dollars was 

 expended in draining, one thousand dollars was expended 

 in the first twenty rods of the outlet, it being almost a 

 solid rock bed. 



Again, labor at different times and places commands dif- 

 ferent prices, any farmer knowing l)est what it will cost 



