158 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



easily be sunk to the entire depth of the handle. The 

 ditches were made, and in less than the specified time, a 

 brave lot of water flowed in. The piece was thoroughly 

 drained, and the result was an immense crop of corn. The 

 field has regularly borne 60 to 70 bushels since. Corn was 

 planted for a first crop in this and the preceding instances, 

 because a paying crop is obtained in one year, whereas, if 

 wheat were sown, it would be necessary to wait two seasons. 

 He always drains when the field is in grass, if possible, for 

 the ditches can be made more easily ; and spring is chosen 

 that the labor may not be interfered with by frosts. 



&quot; To show how necessary it is to avoid planting trees 

 over drains, we quote a case in point. In a lot adjoining 

 his house are four large elms, which are marked to be 

 felled, and for the reason that the lot was formerly so wet 

 that a pond of water stood upon it in winter, and through 

 out the season the children skated and slid upon it. It was 

 drained, and all went well for a time ; but after three years 

 Mr. Johnston found that his drains did not discharge prop 

 erly, and that in certain places the water came to the sur* 

 face, so as to destroy or greatly lessen the crop above them. 

 He could not account for the circumstance until he dug 

 down to the drain at each of these spots, when, to his sur 

 prise, he found the tile completely choked with fibrous 

 roots of the elms, which, naturally seeking the subterranean 

 supply of water, had so accumulated in mass as to stop a 

 two-inch bore of tile. 



&quot;Mr. Johnston does not think there are a hundred 

 acres in any neighborhood that do not need draining, and 

 would not pay well for it. Perhaps this may be thought 

 an extreme assertion, but it is nearer the fact than most of 

 us have been aware. Mr. Johnston is no rich man who 

 has carried a favorite hobby without regard to cost or profit. 

 He is a hard-working Scotch farmer who commenced a 



