[18] 



Thorough-drainage is a costly improvement, and with us will, for 

 some time to come, be confined to the market garden and truck farm ; 

 many of which would do far better to invest more in drain tiles and 

 less in commercial fertilizers. Yet there are thousands of cases in 

 which a few or even a single tile drain, well laid, would in a few years 

 pay for itself, by the prevention of washing, the rapid removal of water 

 from large areas now remaining water-soaked for many days ofter 

 rain, and the facilities afforded in cultivation by doing away with open 

 drains, so troublesome in cutting up fields, and after all, so poorly 

 fulfilling their intended purpose. Brush and log under-drains, if they 

 are to be effectual, require such frequent renewal, that in the end they 

 prove more expensive than tiles. 



THE FALLOW. 



As for fallowing, or as it is usually termed with us, &quot;resting&quot; the 

 land, it is so effectual in restoring soils, not originally poor, to produc 

 tiveness after severe cropping, that it has, time and again, been claimed 

 as the panacea for the maintenance of fertility. But to be effectual, it 

 must not be practised as is frequently done now, viz : simply throwing 

 the land out of cultivation; for it means tillage without cropping, and 

 very thorough tillage, too. 



&quot;GREEN-CROPPING.&quot; 



It is most advantageously connected with the turning-in of green crops, 

 raised on it for the purpose of soil-improvement. And with our long 

 growing season of eight or nine months, this excellent improvement 

 might be very extensively carried out, without losing a year s crop; by 

 simply removing crops from the field so soon as they can be harvested, 

 and immediately occupying the soil with another crop, even though it 

 be one of weeds to be turned under either late in autumn, or (as in 

 the case of rye or oats) early enough in the next season to allow time 

 for a feed or forage crop afterwards. 



Of all the crops adapted to this climate, none is so effectual in re 

 storing worn lands as Red Clover, whose deep roots draw up nourish 

 ment from the subsoil. Hence, in turning it under, we give the surface 

 soil a fresh supply of nourishment available to shallower- rooted crops, 

 which would not, themselves, have gone so deep. 



WHERE, WHEN, AND HOW? 



Such are the means by the aid of which we may not only increase 

 greatly the fertility of all our lands, but restore to profitable produc 

 tiveness most of those &quot; worn&quot; soils whose original thriftiness has been 



