THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 35 



own views, not being any sort of a farmer at all, and concluded 

 that what Major Brooks and ourself had found out about drainage 

 would do to keep. We bided our time, for it occurred to us that it 

 might do those of our neighbors good, who had been poking sticks 

 and making game of our " mining for myths," should they care to 

 learn how to do it, rather than hold on to their ways of how not to 

 do it; that to secure a patent and insist on their paying moderately 

 for right of " mining " would increase their graces, and so we kept 

 our own counsel. 



The old year of 1884 was waning, and the new one 1885 about 

 being ushered in, when we came across the following from the pen 

 of Col. Curtis : 



" Farmers in 1882 expended $5,500,000 for tile and dug nearly 

 53,000 miles of drains to put them in. Besides, thousands of miles 

 were laid with stones. Tile-makers and theorists have created and 

 fostered this craze, and if continued it will result in a perpetual 

 water famine. Wholesale rules adopted without discrimination are 

 a big curse in agriculture, and drainage is one of the most potent 

 for mischief. It is true that in many cases drainage improves land 

 and makes it more tillable, but not always more fertile. Often- 

 times a wet lot, or a wet patch, will, on account of the wetness pro- 

 duce more grass than any other portion of the farm, and by being 

 let alone supplies some spring which is invaluable. The drain 

 fever seizing the owner, the water is speedily carried off, the early 

 and constant pasture spoiled, and the spring fed from it destroyed. 

 Does this outlay pay? The same thoughtless improvement sends 

 the melting snows and the spring rains, without hindrance into the 

 farm rivulet, where they quickly flow beyond reach to the distant river 

 The stores of water being gone early in the summer the rivulet 

 dries, and the stream into which it flows gets wonderfully small, 

 and the mill stops, and on the river the boats ground. 



