WATER SUPPLY FOR CROPS. 25 



I am very sure, to build a stone drain, even if you have 

 them lying alongside, in heaps or otherwise, where the drain 

 is to be laid, than it is to buy the tile and place them in the 

 trench properly. A stone drain is more expensive, and not 

 as effective. Therefore, as a system of draining, it seems to 

 me that the tile system should have been placed tirst in 

 order, as a matter of economy, and as being more efficient. 

 But if the object is to get rid of the stones, it does furnish 

 an opportunity to dispose of them as cheaply, perhaps, as 

 they can be disposed of in any other way. 



Mr. J. B. Moore, of Concord. I think Mv. Ware is 

 exactly right. I do not speak from theoretical knowledge ; 

 this is one of the things I know about. I happen to have a 

 number of miles of drains. I know that one of my neigh- 

 bors drained four or five acres with stone, and those drains^ 

 in the course of ten or fifteen years, became useless, and the 

 land had to be drained with tiles. I know, further than that, 

 that if the soil in Avhich the ditch is to be dug is hard, it is 

 cheaper to excavate such a trench as is needed to lay tiles, 

 than it is to dig the larger trench which is required to put 

 the stone in, even if one of your neighbors would haul the 

 stone with which to lay the drain. I know, too, that a tile 

 drain is infinitely better, and will deliver the water four 

 times as fast as the other. 



Tillage is a very important thing in the growth of crops, 

 and very important to prevent drought, w^hich is the rule and 

 not* the exception of our climate, as the essayist has said. 

 Constant tillage through the summer will obviate the ill 

 effects of a drought, but there is another reason for tillage to 

 which allusion has not been made. If you have omitted to 

 stir your soil, and that soil has become baked and hard, 

 when there comes a shower, if you go down to the brook, 

 you will find that the water has gone into your brook ; but 

 if that soil has been stirred four or five inches deep, — as 

 deep as an ordinary steel-toothed cultivator will stir it, — 

 then, W'hen a rain comes, your plants will get the benefit of 

 it. 



]Mr. . I will ask gentlemen who have had experi- 

 ence in drainage if it would not be a good plan to lay a 

 stone drain and place tile in the bottom of it? 



