284 ANNUAL REPORT. 



■ 



The question on the adoption of the resolution was thentaken and 

 lost; ayes 15, nays 16. 



The following communication from Hon. William G. LeDuc, of 

 Hastings, Ex-Commissioner of Agriculture, was received and placed on 

 file for publication : 



THE NEW AGRICULTDRE. 



« 



Hastings, Minn. , January 18, 1886. 

 S. D. lEllman, Secretary, etc. 



Dear Sik: — A severe cold (or what is usually understood as such) has for the 

 past ten days kept me at home closely and will prevent my attendance at the meet- 

 ing of our Minnesota Horticultural Society commencing to-morrow. I promised 

 you if nothing prevented I would be in attendance and take part in the proceedings. 

 As I do not think it prudent to attend in person the nearest approach 1 can make 

 is to submit in writing briefly some few thoughts pertinent to the matter that will 

 be under discussion. 



It may have come to the notice (in a general way) of some, perhaps all the mem- 

 bers of the Societ}' that the system of drainage, irrigation, and ventilation, affecting 

 the roots of trees and plants has been proposed and indeed carried into practice 

 with very remarkable results by Hon. A. M. Cole of New York state, a system to 

 what he gives the name of "The New Agriculture" and which he fully describes in 

 a book, of that title, recently published. Mr. Cole claims that by his system, the 

 soil may be made to produce ten times as much, as by ordinary cultivation. His 

 claims, submitted to personal examination and criticism of some of the best and most 

 conservative farmers of his state, men like himself advanced in years and cautiously 

 wise with a lifetime experience, have been favorably endorsed and approved. The 

 soil he selected for his trial field was a few acres, sloping to the East; included 4 

 feet in 100; a clay loam more or less stony, with a compact subsoil which his work- 

 men in digging the necessary trenches found tough and solid enough to make it 

 slow pick work. This was poorer than the average of a very poor field of which it 

 formed a part. 



Along the face of this slope, trenches were dug four feet deep and two feet in 

 width, following the superficial curvature of the slope but maintaining the depth 

 from the surface and also the level of the bottom of the trench from end to end 

 This trench he filled with stones of all sizes and kinds to within fifteen inches of 

 the general surface of the slope, then covered with flat stones carefully laid to pre- 

 vent the interstices being filled with soil and on the top of the flat stones placed 

 coarse refuse, material of any kind, grass, stalks, weeds, anything to hold back the 

 earth. This ditch was in effect a reservoir to hold back the water from melting- 

 snow, or rains. The stones serve to support the earth covering the reservoir. At 

 a distance of a few rods, a parallel ditch was dug of exactly similar character 

 filled and covered in the same manner, and these two ditches were connected by- 

 transverse ditches constructed in the same manner only smaller, leading however 

 from the upper ditch about a foot from the surface, the effect of these shallow 

 transverse ditches being to carry off any overflow or surplus water in the ditch 



