168 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
opportunity to change the thinner uplands more frequently to clover and 
grasses torest them. These rich bottom lands are mines of stable manure 
with which to keep the hilly lands fertile. Where is the man who, after a 
series of years of trial believes that draining so-called natural meadow lands 
was amistake? I believe in getting all lands into shape for short rota- 
tions, with two or three years to grass and as many to grain and other 
crops. Such a system is clearly more profitable than all grain on one part 
of the land and all grass on another part. Timothy and clover are our 
short rotation meadow and pasture plants and they make more and better 
hay and pasturage than do the wet land wild grasses assisted by redtop. 
WHERE TO PLACE DRAINS. 
With our comparatively small annual rainfall and our unusually deep 
pervious surface layer of soil, drains do not need to be very close together, 
and therefore to drain the wet sloughs and ponds in our undulating lands 
is not expensive. One line of tiles in the middle of a wet hollow, or if 
seepage water comes from the hills, tiles on one or both sides of the hol- 
low often makes a slough into the richest part of a large unbroken field. 
Likewise a single short tile laid so as to catch seepage water, may entirely 
cure a springy hillside. Even where large flat areas are to bedrained, un- 
less the subsoil is very impervious, the rainfall is not so great that a tile 
is needed closer than every 160 to 200 feet apart for ordinary field crops. 
Tiles pay so well in many of these places that these rich lands often produce 
enough more in one to three years to pay for the tiles and the labor of 
laying them. 
Where there is a large flow of fiood or surface water open drains are 
needed, and these serve as outlets for the main tile drains. The general 
plan of open ditches should be to make the sides very slanting and then 
sew grass seeds, like redtop, white clover and Kentucky blue grass, so 
that the banks will be preserved by the sod from washing in times of 
flood. Where the fall is five or more inches to the hundred feet, the 
grades can be roughly laid out by meansof acarpenter’s level and astraight 
edge, or by some other easily improvised means, or even by the eye if the 
grade is considerable. These drains can be graded with water or with 
some rude arrangement so made that a carpenter’s level indicates the 
grade. 
Figure A is to pull along in the graded bottom of the ditch. To make 
the grade six inches to the 100 feet drop the front end of the top board one 
inch at the point v, and then grade the ditch so that the bubble stands 
in the middle in the level at y. Figure B represents a triangle made of 
boards. When the lower board rests on a level surface, the plumb-bob 
rests on the central mark at¢. The marks toward the back of the imple- 
