136 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to it. W. N. Cook, Michigan, said it depends on amount of water; in city sewers 

 it had been demonstrated that with small amount of water, small sewers will hot 

 fill up as soon as larger. Mr. Cay wood, New York, endorsed the theory. Mr. 

 Wheeler, Ohio, on clay loam, with heavy subsoil, has drains from one and a 

 half to six feet in depth, and uses tile from one and a half to six inches; the 

 former are too small, but has opened two inch tile, after they had been laid 

 many years, and found them all clear; has such drains thirty rods long. His 

 orehard is tiled between rows, thirty feet apart, and no trouble from clogging. 

 Prof. McKay, Mississippi, spoke of the benefit of tiles both in wet and dry 

 seasons. During the past wet summer, ensilage corn, tiled, grew luxuriantly, 

 while that not tiled turned yellow and stopped growing. 



A gentleman said that many years ago he was in South Carolina, where the 

 Sea Island cotton was grown, and he advised draining the land. One man con- 

 tended it would ruin his loose soil to drain it; after some years, however, he 

 concluded to try it, and the yield of cotton was increased from 150 pounds to 

 300 pounds per acre. 



Prof. N. S. Townsend of the Ohio University, greatly preferred small tile, 

 unless the drain was in a soil strongly impregnated with iron, when small tile 

 were likely to become clogged with the accumulation of the iron. He had an 

 apple orchard in which the trees stood two rods apart. There was a tile drain 

 three feet deep between the rows. The apple roots gave no trouble. A willow 

 growing near did give trouble, the roots forming a perfect " wad " in the tile. 

 Willow roots will go two or three rods to reach a drain tile or well. Elm roots 

 are often troublesome, but are not so bad as the willow. Peach roots sometimes 

 cause trouble. 



Prof. Claypole, Ohio, a chemist, explained why ashes counteract the effects 

 of drouth; carbonate of potash has a powerful attraction for water, and so 

 absorbs the moisture of the atmosphere. 



Mr. Smith sometimes uses leached ashes, but then he applies double the 

 amount, and could see no difference in effect between the two. 



Prof. W. P. Lazenby asked if straw, spread on the surface, would have the 

 same effect as cultivating. Mr. Smith said that it would be better than noth- 

 ing, but that weeds would come up through the straw. On his high priced land 

 he plants strawberries two feet each way and trains the runners around the 

 hill. 



VEGETABLE GARDENING IN JAPAN. 



Mr. Kizo Tamari, Commissioner from Japan to the New Orleans Exposition, 

 who has since remained in the country to study our horticulture, read a very 

 interesting paper on the above subject, of which the following is a brief sum- 

 mary: 



When I say that a single root of burdock is sometimes worth twenty-five 

 cents in Japan, you will be surprised at the high .price for such a noxious weed, 

 and will imagine that there are no good vegetables in Japan. When our peo- 

 ple hear that a quart of blackberries brings twenty-five cents in this country 

 they will think that you may not have delicious fruits here. There are many 

 culinary vegetables of good quality in Japan, and so you have an abundance of 

 delicious fruits. The existence of different ideas in two countries as to the 

 choice of edible plants, depends not only on the taste, but also on habits of 



