AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 277 



■with a hose 80 feet long, by 'wliich all crops were watered with liquid 

 manure. The results pay well, but, from what I saw, I am not prepared 

 to believe that 100 tons of grass were ever cut from an acre in one year, 

 except it is weighed with a deal of water in it. The way the grass is 

 reported to have been weighed on the Ayrshire meadows showed that half 

 the weight must have been water. I never have seen anything to induce 

 me to believe that over eight tuns of dry hay have ever been raised upon 

 any one acre. 



Judge French, of New Hampshire, said that he had never seen anything 

 to induce him to swallow those big stories about great hay crops. We cut 

 sometimes in New England three tons per acre of dry hay. 1 have averaged 

 that upon some acres, at one cutting. Ordinarily a second crop is made 

 upon such land. With irrigation perhaps two tons could be cut at the 

 second mowing. Perhaps the rye grass, which is the kind grown in Eng- 

 land, and weighed very wet, may weigh 100 tons, and perhaps it would not 

 make over twelve tons an acre of dry hay. I doubt if it would. 



Prof. Mapes. — I suppose that twelve tons can be grown in this country 

 by irrigation with sewerage water. Mr. Lincoln, of Worcester, has done 

 something like this. 



Prof. Nash. — I must dissent from all stories about grass crops that pro- 

 duce over 8 tons of dry hay per acre. 



T. W. Field. — I cannot believe in a grass crop that weighs more than 

 the rain-water falling upon the land in one season. The weight of rain- 

 water that falls upon an acre is 45 tons. It is true more than that quan- 

 tity can be put on by irrigation, but I don't know about growing more than 

 that weight of grass. 



DRAINAGE. 



This question of the day being called up Prof. Mapes asked Judge French 

 to state what he had seen in England about tile draining. The question of 

 the necessity of silt basins is important, and also about inserting small tiles 

 into leading drains. The English engineers say that there is no bed equal 

 to the natural condition of the earth for laying down tiles. They open a 

 little cavity at the bottom of the ditch with a tool so as to fit the tile, 

 where it rests easy and firm. We should like to know at what depth Eng- 

 lish experience has found it best to lay drains. Judge French has lately 

 travelled in England, and examined the subject of draining in all its bear- 

 ings, and is now engaged in putting a book to press, containing his views 

 upon the subject, and is therefore undoubtedly competent to give us some 

 information upon this, the most important question of American agriculture. 



Judge French. — The best depth of drain, it is thought, is four feet ; and 

 that is so, according to my observations, though it depends upon circum- 

 stances. Where tiles are dear and labor cheap, the less tiles we can uso 

 the better. Drains three feet deep, at forty feet apart, are not so eifective 

 as at five feet deep and fifty feet apart. Tiles in this country must be laid 

 below frost and sub-soil plows, and that should be at least three feet deep. 



