draiin'age. 19X 



I fully concur in the foregoing. My sixty-acre experience, 

 as stated, was conclusive with me ; and I can point to very 

 many who arc doing the same thing year after year. In very 

 favorable seasons, they succeed well, but ordinarily the weeds 

 get the start, and they only succeed in cultivating a small por- 

 tion of the driest part of their farms. Their richest lands 

 grow up to weeds, and they drive over four acres, in husking 

 time, to gather what should be gathered from one. 



DRAINAGE. 



Our prairies are not dead levels ; there can not be a rise in 

 the surface without a corresponding hollow. These swales or 

 sloughs, between the rolls, are the richest portions of our lands, 

 but they take the seeping from the higher ground adjacent, 

 and are actually wetter than the flatter lands. Almost every 

 farmer plows, plants, cultivates, and harvests from ten to thirty 

 per cent, of his land, that yields him little, if any thing, ex- 

 cept in the driest seasons. This is the principal reason that 

 our average is so low, but the remedy is very simple. There 

 is very nearly, if not quite, enough labor expended in cultivat- 

 ing this khid of land each year, to drain it thoroughly, thereby 

 rendering the farmer independent of the season. In many 

 cases, one farmer can not drain alone ; his outlet is across his 

 neighbor's land, who, like the " dog in the manger," will 

 neither do himself nor allow others to do ; or, who is so selfish 

 that he will wait for his neighbor to expend time and money, 

 while he (the selfish one) reaps the benefit. Systematic unity 

 is requisite to success. Drainage laws are needed, but many 

 will suffer loss year after year, rather than have a quarrel with 

 their neighbors. 



The time is coming when we shall have a thorough system 

 of drainage, then thorough cultivation will be the rule instead 

 of the exception, and one hundred bushels of corn to the acre 

 will not be an exceptional yield, as it is now. 



SMALL FRUITS. 



I will add a few words on the culture of small fruits, 

 especially strawberries. Much has been said and written on 



