YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 91 



TWELFTH DAY. FEB. 14, 1860. 



Judge HENRY F. FREXCH, of New Hampshire, told us, on 

 being first introduced to the Convention, that he was not an 

 orator ; but his audiences of yesterday and to-day are, if I may 

 judge from their expressions at the close of the two discourses, 

 convinced that he is possessed of the eloquence of facts, more 

 useful to us than the other glittering qualification. He com 

 menced this morning by saying a good thing boldly, viz. : that 

 open ditches obstruct good husbandry, a fact which the oppo 

 nents to covered drains would do well to remember. Open 

 ditches occupy much land needlessly ; they cause constant turn 

 ing at headlands ; their influence on the area of soil is not uni 

 form, as the parts nearest them are dried while the rest is left 

 as wet as ever ; in heavy rains not only is much soil washed 

 into them, but, along with it, manure that at labor and expense 

 has been applied ; their banks washing away, the bottoms soon 

 get filled up, and require frequent cleaning out ; and their 

 sides and boundary strips afford a refuge to weeds, and a home 

 to rats, mice, and other vermin. Sometimes, as "headers" to 

 cut off the inflow of water to a field, they may be of use ; and 

 again, on very level land, a great canal-like ditch may be em 

 ployed, in lieu of a natural water-course, to receive the drain 

 age of a farm ; but these are the exceptions to a general rule. 

 The various kinds of drains were in turn described, the lecturer 

 observing that there might be circumstances where tiles could 

 not be had, and thence these several substitutes could be tol 

 erated as makeshifts. In brush drains, the durability of the 

 material depends not so much upon its keeping nature as on the 

 piivsiccil and other character of the soil. Thus, he had known 

 an instance of white-birch, which one would think would decay 

 in a year, having remained in a brush drain for six years almost 

 as fresh as when cut. 



The reason for its preservation was, that it had been sub- 



