294 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



loose soils, occur within five or six feet of the surface, if the out-fall will 

 allow, it is best to cut down to them, but never so deep unless under such 

 circumstances. Deep drains arrest the ascent of water and noxious sub- 

 stances from beneath, whether by the force of springs or capillary action, 

 and will be permanent only so long as you keep them in good order j the 

 moment they are neglected, the original state of the field will return again. 

 When rain enters the earth, it displaces the air with which it comes in con- 

 tact, which either rises into the atmosphere or descends to the drains. When 

 it ceases to fall, the water sinks, and the pores are left open to take in 

 fresh air. Efficient drainage protects the farmer from the uncetiain dura- 

 tion of the seasons, by carrying off the v/atcr so rapidly as to render the 

 Boil workable so soon as the rain ceases to fall. If a man will undertake 

 to drain thoroughly, say ten acres of land, he will find himself repaid iu 

 three years. He may, then, gradually drain any amount by the repeated 

 use of the same money. In draining, remember that water does not run 

 into drains by instinct, but completely saturates the soil, and can only be 

 drawn off by drains made deep. A three foot drain will only drain land 

 two feet six inches, and it is usual for rye and wheat to extend as deep in 

 the soil as they do above it. A well authenticated case has come to my 

 knowledge, where the roots of rye have extended, on the bank of the Wall- 

 kill river, to the depth of seventy-two feet, for water. If you make two 

 sets of drains, one deep and the other shallow, the shallow one will be use- 

 less, except to aureate the soil. On low lying soils, if you have a sufficient 

 out-fall, and can reach gravel by going down six, eight, or even ten feet, 

 do not fail to do so, and it will affect favorably all the land on the same 

 level, even if it be ten miles square, and all the mill sites within the same- 

 area, unfavorably, by bringing the water to a point at which it will be use- 

 less to fill mill ponds. And notv/ithstanding I am the ov^ner of some of the 

 finest mill sites in the country, I vrould be willing to see them all demolished 

 throughout the land for the sake of agriculture, and steam power substituted, 

 and have no doubt but that, in a majority of cases, this arrangement would 

 prove not only economical to the farmer, but to the manufacturer, as it 

 would restore the streams to their natural beds, and thus .-open them as 

 arteries for drainage, and enable farmers, millers and manufacturers, to 

 reclaim, and bring under cultivation, at a moderate cost, thousands of 

 acres now overflowed and destroyed by mill dams. I believe if nine out 

 of ten of the mill streams in the United States, were surveyed from the 

 ocean to their source, and the mills upon them valued, the land injured or 

 benefited by such mill dams ascertained, and the question of advantage or 

 disadvantage to the landholder and manufacturer appraised, it would be 

 found that the injury done would far exceed the rental of the mills ; and it 

 would be a measure of national economy, to buy up the mills and give the 

 owners steam povrer, in all densely inhabited districts. 



Thorough drainage will be the means of introducing many important im- 

 provements by the extended cultivation of green and root crops, giving 



