Dr.\inage Ix\ New York. • 257 



fulness. The increase varies with the original condition of the land. On 

 acknowledged swamp land, such as is included in the first group of drain- 

 age conditions, the difference is that between no crop at all and a large 

 crop. For it must be kept in mind in connection with wet land that its 

 productiveness after drainage is, as a rule, directly proportional to its wet- 

 ness before drainage. So that the drained swamps are usually the most 

 productive soils for many kinds of crops. And very often these are special 

 crops of large market value, such as celery, onions, cabbage, and some 

 other truck crops not to mention many general farm crops. 



Of such lands, which have been drained and which have yielded largely, 

 the Miami black clay loam of the north central states — one of the best 

 corn soils found anywhere — ^ is a notable example. And all of the mem- 

 bers of the Clyde series of soils found around the Great Lakes, which are 

 characterized first by their naturally poor drainage and which under cultiva- 

 tion are highly productive, are another pertinent example. But important 

 as are the increased crops from these purely swamp lands, the increased 

 crops under the second and third groups of drainage conditions — the land 

 already included in cultivated fields — are of greater importance to the 

 average farmer. When it is known that the crop returns from such land 

 can be increased from 10 per cent to 100, or even 200 per cent in excep- 

 tional cases, without any corresponding increase in other expenses, the 

 matter assumes a practical form. On clay and black loam soil, a man in 

 southern Oswego county writes of the effect of tile drainage that instead of 

 the poorest crops they were the best on the drained part of the field. From 

 southern Monroe county on clay soil it is reported that, " Except in an 

 extremely wet season it is possible to secure a crop of anything planted." 



On the rolling upland soils the reports of greatly increased yields are 

 equally as abundant and striking as on the clay soil. Mr. Johnston re- 

 ports that his yields of wheat increased from the indifferent amount of 15 

 or 20 bushels per acre to an average of from 30 or 35 bushels with an 

 occasional yield between 40 and 50 bushels. Nor have these yields been 

 temporary for on the same farm now after a lapse of 50 years, similarly 

 large yields are reported. Figure 191 shows a wheat stubble — part of a 

 field of several acres — which is reported to have yielded 44 bushels of 

 wheat in 1907. The stubble is uniformly heavy over this field. On the 

 Miami stony loam in northern Tompkins county a man who has been 

 practicing tile drainage for ten years reports the increased yield to be 

 always 50 per cent and in many cases 100 per cent. On a similar stony 

 loam soil in Niagara county the effects are termed " good." On rolling 

 slatey loam soil in Herkimer county the effects of tile drainage are " very 

 good " crops. On rolling land of a heavy loam character in Monroe 



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