138 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



Open Ditches for draining are very objectionable, since they are so liable to cave in 

 at the sides and fill up with the mud that is washed into them, and by the treading of cattle 

 over them, that they prove only a temporary means of drainage. They also require consid 

 erable land, as teams cannot be driven near their sides, in plowing or harrowing, while with 

 the use of tiles no land whatever is rendered useless. 



In crossing them with teams, bridges are required, causing considerable trouble and 

 expense in constructing, or subjecting the farmer to great inconvenience without them. 

 Besides these objections, open ditches with standing water are unhealthy, and are often the 

 cause of disease in those sections where used. The digging of such trenches is also attended 

 with considerable labor and expense. The soil removed from them is, however, often valu 

 able for mixing with manure, and when dried, for bedding for stables and hog pens, since it con 

 tains more or less of the fertilizing properties, and forms a good compost with both the liquid 

 and solid substances from these sources. 



Furrow Draining, which consists of cultivating the land in ridges or furrows, by 

 plowing in such a manner as to leave open furrows for drainage purposes between the ridges 

 of earth, and planting on the top of each ridge, was formerly practiced in England and other 

 portions of Europe to a considerable extent, but has generally been superseded for the most 

 part by under-draining. 



It requires considerable labor to prepare the land in this manner, and also a large 

 area of surface to make it practicable, besides not being a very efficient method, is conse 

 quently not to be recommended when other and better means can be employed. 



Hon. C. C. Andrews, in referring to the peculiar rigid appearance of the wheat fields in 

 some portions of Italy, says that this formation comes from plowing with a view to drain 

 ing. The furrows are turned so that with the subsequent harrowing, and use of a wooden 

 smoother, the ground is left in oval ridges or beds a foot high, and from 2 to 3 feet wide. 

 The ditch between is scarcely wide enough to place the foot. &quot;What is striking about the 

 ridges, is their remarkable regularity and precision. Occasionally, however, and apparently 

 on the better-cultivated farms, the drains are in some cases 10 feet, in others 30 feet, apart 

 the plowing in such case being done as in the country north of the Alps. 



These ridges are usually formed by turning two furrows together from opposite direc- 

 tions, which gives the field a very uniform appearance. As we have previously stated, the 

 most effectual method of draining lands is by the use of tiles, and will be found, all things 

 considered, the most permanent, economical, and satisfactory means that can be employed for 

 this purpose. 



GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



GRASSES, or plants constituting the order Graminete, are distributed over the entire 

 earth and constitute one of the largest orders of the vegetable kingdom. This order 

 includes all the cereals of temperate climates, together with the grains of the warmer 

 zones, and the bamboos of India and America many of which have columnar stems reach 

 ing to the height of forest trees yet are all formed on a common type, and therefore belong 

 to the same botanical order as the tiniest spear of grass beneath our feet. 



The seeds of many of the varieties and the nutrition of the herbage, form the chief por 

 tion of the sustenance of mankind, and the more valuable of the domestic animals. Among 

 these are wheat, rye, maize or Indian corn, barley, oats, rice, sugar-cane, sorghum, broom- 

 corn, millet, etc., while the bamboo is indispensable to the natives of India in the construction 

 of their dwellings, the making of mats, cordage, boats, sails, masts, rafts, and even musical 



