58 AGRICULTURE. 



conduits to relieve our cultivated lands from the excess of 

 water which they receive from the skies. When the agri- 

 cultural interest congregates for the purpose of mutual 

 condolence or congratulation, their pattern men never fail 

 to declare that draining is the foundation of agricultural 

 improvement and that if there be salvation for them, it 

 is to be found in draining. Every here and there a booby 

 exists who says, " How can you expect grass to grow if 

 you take the water away from it? How in a dry summer?" 

 But he is overwhelmed at once by the rush of the agri- 

 cultural mind in an opposite direction. Through the 

 length and breadth of the laud a crusade has been 

 preached against water. Pipes and collars are the devices 

 of this national movement. This is " the piping time of 

 peace," We have put our necks into the collar, have 

 taken suit and service, and have sworn allegiance to this 

 cause. We find ourselves associated with a very motley 

 crew, who are brought together indeed by some unity of 

 object, which they not only seek to attain by various and 

 incongruous means, but carry on a fierce internal contro- 

 versy, in which every disputant accuses the plan of his 

 opponent of failure, and boasts largely of his own success. 

 We will endeavour to impart to our readers the conclusions 

 on which, after some experience, a close observation of the 

 works of those who claim to be authorities in this matter, 

 and a painful and ill-requited attention to the literary and 

 oratorical war which is raging around us, we have deter- 

 mined to base our own practice. 



But before we take a prospective view of our craft, we 

 must glance at its early history, and at the various steps 

 and stages by which it has arrived at its present position. 

 Though the ancients for the most part courted water as an 

 ally to their agriculture, they did not hesitate in many 

 cases to encounter it with great energy and perseverance 

 as its enemy. They were not slow to perceive the extra- 

 ordinary vegetative capacity of those amphibious lands 

 which are deposited by large rivers within the debateable 



