YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. Ill 



like exhaustion ; but I know it was not so. I was satisfied, from 

 former experience, that in my absence the ditches had not been 

 thoroughly cleared and kept clean. Before I left home, in 

 December, I had the matter fully tested, and found that my 

 six-feet ditches were three to four feet deep, and all others in 

 proportion. Such was the carelessness and malfeasance of 

 those I left in charge. I inaugurated new officers, and if next 

 year is as favorable as the last, will expect to average seventy 

 bushels per acre on these lands." 



This very 1,500-acre corn-field I went through in 1857, and 

 can fully corroborate what the Governor says about his large 

 yield, and the depth of his drains. In fact, his great outside 

 drains looked more like canals than anything else, and were, at 

 the time of my visit, abundantly filled with water. Two acres, 

 if I recollect aright, of this corn-field measured ninety-eight 

 bushels each, and the plantation crop amounted, in the aggre 

 gate, to about 56,000 bushels. This was raised on a swamp, 

 just like many thousand other acres in South Carolina, but 

 rendered thus fertile by open ditching. Governor Hammond's 

 experience goes to corroborate what yesterday Judge French 

 said against open ditches. In one season only, because of neg 

 lect to clean them out, the ditches filled up, so that on the 

 1,500 acres the crop was shortened 30,000 bushels, and in one 

 year more a further loss of 15,000 bushels was experienced. 

 Let things go on at this ratio, and in 1863 Mr. Hammond 

 might as well save his seed, for he would get no crop at all. 



Judge French adverted to the fact that plant roots cannot 

 descend into soil filled with stagnant water, for it has the same 

 deleterious effect upon them as does holy water upon a certain 

 unmentionable gentleman of a sable hue. All plants need 

 loosely-packed soil, and some of them a great depth of it. The 

 downward travel of roots Ire proved by the observations of 

 Mechi, Cobbett, Downing, and others. Jethro Tull's ancient 

 doctrine, that by extreme comminution of the soil we will fur 

 nish abundant food to plants without needing to care much for 



