438 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



"Gentlemen, in the name of the college I bid j'Oii welcome, our 

 latchstring is out, and I wish for you a prosperous convention tha' shall 

 do a positive good for the State." 



Introductory to the program. Professor Curtiss said: "There is no 

 question at the present time more vital than the drainage of our soil. 

 A few years ago some would-be scientists said we were making a mi:; 

 take in our drainage plans; that w^e would draw all the moisture out ot 

 the soil with our tiling. The past two seasons have furnished sufl&cieni 

 evidence to entirely dispel such doctrine. 



-'The matter of drainage lies at the very foundation of successful 

 agriculture, there can be no satisfactory cropping until surplus water 

 is disposed of. 



"Drainage systems and drainage laws need to be studied with the 

 utmost care. Drainage is closely connected with the problem of good 

 roads. The statistics gathered by the Department of Soils at this col- 

 lege indicate the inadequate drainage and the great losses the State suf- 

 fers from this source. 



'•Tile drainage has only been used for little more than half a cen 

 tury in this country. The first tile used were imported from Scotland 

 in 1833, and the first machine for tile drainage was made in New York 

 in 1848. The pioneer farmer in tile drainage was ridiculed by his fellow 

 farmers, who said he was 'putting crockery into the ground to bury his 

 money.' The farmer of later years who carefully drained his wet farm 

 and saw its effects upon his crops and realized increased profits in his 

 harvests, exclaimed with earnestness. 'Verily, I believe the whole- earth 

 should be drained!' 



''The past two seasons have revealed to us, as never before, our 

 faulty drainage, and I trust that they may yet prove a blessing to i? 

 by giving us a better system of drainage. It is as necessary that we have 

 well drained land in a dry season as in a wet season. 



"The drainage problem will help us to solve the good roads prob- 

 lem. This convention has been called to give an expression of opinion 

 on this worl^ and plan for definite action."' 



PEESENT DRAINAGE CONDITIONS OF IOWA. 



Prof. W. H. Stevenson, of the Department of Soils of Iowa Stat^ 

 College, presented a large fund of exceedinly valuable data regarding 

 drainage conditions of Iowa and spoke in" part as follows: 



"Soil problems are today receiving careful attention in almost every 

 state and territory in the Union. They lie at the very foundation of 

 our successful agriculture. It is true that these problems are widely 

 different in different states, but all of them are important. Therefore 

 it is right that they should receive the attention which they are now 

 receiving at the hands of the farmers and others who are interested in 

 the improvement of American agricultural conditions. In the far East 

 we find the experiment stations and fa.-mers standing shoulder to shoul- 

 der in their investigations, studying the use of commercial fertilizers and 

 learning how they can bring back to their fields the fertility that has 

 been wasted by careless handling. In the Southland of our country we 



