AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 289 



Mr. Pell read tlie following remarks on drainage : 



The ordinary expectations of the results from tliorough draining varies 

 much according to the nature and previous condition of the land. A sixth 

 •of increase in produce of grain crops may be considered as the very lowest 

 estimate, and in actual result it is rarely less than one-fourth. 



In numerous cases, after one year's cultivation, the yield is doubled, 

 while the expense of preparing and working the land is considerably les- 

 sened. There is, in every case, a very great increase of straw, for adding 

 to the manure heap, and a far less quantity of manure placed upon the 

 land, in its changed condition, produces wonderful effect. The complete 

 cleaning of the land is facilitated ; the pulverization and disintegration is, 

 at all times, more completely attained, and at far less expense ; and the 

 Jabor of the farmer is rarely interrupted when rain has not recently fallen. 

 On nearly all lands, the actual result in a few years will enable the tenant 

 to pay ten per cent on the cost of drainage, besides being himself well re- 

 paid. I have known instances on my farm where thirty per cent on the 

 expenditure has been realized. 



You will not consider such returns exaggerated when you consider the 

 various itejus of which the improvement consists ; such, for example, as the 

 increased quantity of every crop, the earlier cultivation, earlier seeding, 

 earlier maturity of grain, and, as a consequence, its improvement in weight 

 and quantity ; the facility it affords of cultivating the earth early in the 

 spring and late at the fall ; the preservation of manures, particularly if 

 they are liquid, and consequent economy in their application, besides other 

 advantages which are productive of considerable profits. 



Still it is difficult to state accurately what returns may not be actually 

 realized, owing to the numerous circumstances of the natures of soils, 

 height of the land drained, proximity of population, etc. Other consider- 

 ations are likewise involved with the expense of drains, fencing, clearing 

 the land, and above all this cost, capital is required to thoroughly cultivate 

 the land, without which drainage, of itself, would not repay the outlay 

 involved. 



I have qualified a thin clay soil, which in parts was covered with water, 

 and consequently unfit for cultivation, to grow not only green crops in profu- 

 sion, but grow crops superior to those on the dry and cultivated lands in 

 the neighborhood — a result attributable to drainage, which will most 

 assuredly pave the way for the introduction of the most perfect system of 

 garden culture, facilitate the growing of a succession of crops the same 

 summer ; likewise the use of manure in the liquid form, which is the only 

 way it should be applied, and finally afford immense advantages in the appli- 

 cation of irrigation on grass land, which cannot possibly permeate the soil 

 unless it is efi'ectually underdrained. Without this preparation, irrigated 

 meadows are rapidly converted into swamps, and soon contaminate the 

 atmosphere by depositing dress on the surface. 



Drainage, besides benefiting the land, ameliorates the climate and puri- 



[Am. Inst.] 19 



