22 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



be $100,000 worse off than we now are. I have known four inch tile to choke 

 up two years after being laid so they had to be taken up, and not a root in the 

 tile either, but all caused by failure to get a true grade. If the bottom of the 

 ditch is uneven and the tile settles the depth of its bore, the probability is that 

 the tile will be choked as soon as silt enough gets in to fill it up. The most 

 important thing in tiling is to have suitable fall and a true grade." 



In continuing the discussion of the subject, this note from Dr. M. Miles, of 

 Amherst, Massachusetts, was presented: 



DRAINAGE OF ORCHARDS. 

 PROF. M. MILES, AMHERST, MASS. 



It seems to be a popular notion that tile drains have some mysterious-' 

 attraction for the roots of trees, and that a growth of fine fibrous roots in the 

 tiles is a verv common cause of obstruction. 



The inference is therefore made that the thorough drainage of orchards is 

 impracticable; or at least, that the results of such drainage are attended with 

 so much uncertainty as to make the liberal expenditure of capital in such 

 improvements undesirable. 



This inference cannot, however, be accepted as a legitimate one, as the 

 assumption which gives rise to it is based on insufficient evidence. 



The reported cases in which tiles have been stopped by the roots of trees, 

 seem to show that this cause of obstruction may be looked upon as an excep- 

 tional one that is liable to occur only under certain well defined conditions. 



From the facts I have been able to collect, relating to this subject, water- 

 loving trees and shrubs, like the elm, willow, swamp ash, and elder, are almost 

 exclusively the offenders, but I have yet to learn that they have been trouble- 

 some when there was not a perennial stream of water running in the tiles. 



There is, moreover, no evidence that the roots of fruit trees are more likely 

 t© cause a stoppage in drains, than the roots of some of our ordinary farm 

 crops, which have been known to fill the tiles in seasons of drought, where the 

 water was constantly running. 



When perennial springs are discharged through the drains there is always 

 more or less danger of obstruction from the roots of low land trees in the 

 vicinity of the line of the tiles; but it must be noted, that those which are 

 close to the drains very often, or perhaps in a large proportion of cases, do no 

 harm, while other individuals of the same species, at a considerable distance 

 from the drains, are quite as likely to prove the invaders, so that other condi- 

 tions than mere proximity to the drains must be taken into consideration to 

 account for the facts observed. 



The character of the subsoil, and especially its capillarity, or porosity, which 

 largely determines the facility with which a supply of water is obtained from 

 other sources than the drains in time of drought, will undoubtedly have an in- 

 fluence on the habit of root growth ; and it is only when the available supply of 

 water from the subsoil is not sufficient for the purposes of the plant that the 

 abnormal method of invading the tiles for water is resorted to. It is not from 

 choice, but from compulsion that the erratic habit is developed. And here the 

 mistake must not be made of assuming that the thorough and deep drainage of 

 the subsoil will increase the erratic habits of the roots in time of drought. 

 Thorough drainage is one of the most efficient methods for increasing the capil- 



