THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 73 



reaches the height where carried off by the cross trenches. The 

 water from the rains and melting snows instead of passing off in 

 surface rills and channels is caught in these reservoirs and slowly 

 and continuously niters through the soil from trench to trench 

 sweats through it, so to speak rendering it porous, pliable, spongy 

 always sufficiently damp to feed and stimulate vegetation to the 

 highest degree, and yet always sufficiently dry to be in the best 

 possible order for cultivation. 



" On a part of his plantation which Mr. Cole has thus treated he 

 last year cut three crops of timothy grass, each crop being in the 

 head when cut. Most of the trenched ground is now planted with 

 blackberry and raspberry bushes and strawberry vines. What the 

 berry bushes will do yet is only conjectural they have a strong, 

 healthy, prominent development but the strawberry vines it is 

 utterly impossible to appropriately describe their wonderous 

 wealth of productiveness. The vines are literally loaded with ber- 

 ries and their average size is marvelous. Many were readily 

 found which measured nearly eight inches in circumference, and 

 there were no small berries. Mr. Cole proudly said : ' I have ber- 

 ries this year as big as peaches,' and, he confidently added, ' I will 

 grow them next year as large as apples.' He claimed he would 

 this year harvest more bushels of strawberries from his vines than 

 any farmer would grow bushels of potatoes from the same area of 

 ground. He said the cost of putting his ground in its present 

 condition of reservoirs and consequent productiveness was about 

 $500 per acre, and he expected to realize $1,200 from his strawberry 

 crop alone this year. 



" One or two facts more are worthy of mention, 1st While the 

 ground all around this plot was last winter frozen several feet deep, 

 this ground was not frozen the plants grew the winter through. 

 2d One of the delugy rains so prevelant this season poured down 



