Drainage in New York. 



249 



(2) Theron G. Yoemans. The name of John Delafield has been men- 

 tioned as the importer of the first tile machine — a Scraggs. One other 

 man deserves recognition in this group. Theron G. Yoemans of Walworth, 

 Wayne county, very early became a disciple of Mr. Johnston in the matter 

 of tile drainage and these three men — Johnston, Delafield and Yoemans — 

 were assiduous in spreading the gospel of better drainage. Unlike the soil 

 around Geneva, Mr. Yoemans' farm of over 300 acres consisted mainly 

 of Miami stony loam and the surface is rather more rolling than the land 

 around Rose Hill. It may be classed with the first phase of the third 

 group made in the State. The general lay of the surface is shown in 

 figure 192. It will be noticed that the differences in elevation are very con- 

 siderable and will amount to a hundred feet or more within rather short 

 distances. But the slopes, while steep, are never abrupt and are seldom 



-f_|__J-_U*^!l 



A 



Blllt»-""""""'«"""««i'"'»'niiiiw'""';v*"«"i"ii(-is" MI»wi»iii«/„iiMiiwi»,«ii« 



l^..;. — . 



:vv//i M: '"'^i '^'"^'y-^.tr, •■■■ -.-^ ■ 'r- : V/A Vrt < v^., . ^ 



(^•:^;^v^;'^v.::,^.';^ 



Fig. 192. — ■Rolling character of surface in Miami stony loam region adjacent to 

 Lake Ontario. Note intervening szvampy depression, which is characteristic. 



too steep to be tilled. Another characteristic of this Lake Ontario region 

 is shown in this figure 192. Between the hills is frequently found marshy 

 or even swampy land. Figure 194 shows at short range an area of muck 

 soil flooded because of the inadequacy of the open ditch through the center 

 and which could very well be made large enough to handle the drainage 

 and preserve the crops. But Mr. Yoemans did not begin tile draining the 

 low land. He was a fruit grower and nurseryman and did his tile drain- 

 ing on the slopes of Miami stony loam adjacent to the village of Wal- 

 worth. Probably one-half or more of his farm was in fruit and his dwarf 

 pear orchard has gained wide renown, both because of its early success 

 and the thoroughness with which the land on which it stood was drained. 

 The trees stand 10 feet apart with a tile drain between every other row 

 at a depth of from 2 to 2^ feet. The trees were planted in 1852 and 

 almost every one lived until a year or two ago when part of them was 

 removed because they seemed to have become too old to bear. Some of 

 the trees still remain large and thrifty. Mr. Yoemans said that on much 

 of this sort of land many trees were killed by freezing of the soil but that 

 drainage remedied all of this. 



In 1852 Mr. Yoemans was awarded second prize for a paper on drain- 



