FARMERS' REGISTER 



751 



and in summer, when it is too rapid, the ridges may 

 obstruct it. 



IC twenty inches of rain fall in the year, which 

 would relaio moisture in droughts longest, a level 

 iron pan of a hundred acres area, or a hundred 

 acres of earth o( a soil absorbing all thatlelll The 

 f?oiI [ have been speaking of, flat and undrained, 

 is sonievvhat of the nature of the pan ; drained by 

 ridges and deep furrows, it is converted into one 

 more absorbent. 



The next species of draining to be considered ia 

 nearly as simple, as useful, and as niucli neglected, 

 as that we have just passed. A great part o( the 

 country below the mountains is of a eandy soil, 

 and abounds with amultitude of creeks, bogs, ri- 

 vulets, generally furnishing fine land up to their 

 very springs, if they were drained. Rut instead 

 of doing this, the labor of the country has been 

 applied with great perseverance and Piuccess, to 

 draining the hills of their barren sands, for the 

 purpose of pouring them upon these rich valleys. 

 To arrest and repair so ruinous an evil, would be 

 the means of bringing under culture an imiriense 

 body of land, infinitely more fertile than that in 

 cultivation ; and if health and plenty are bad mo- 

 tives for the undertaking, this fertility ought to sug- 

 gest the lolly of neglecting the smallest slip of these 

 wet lands, from pecuniary considerations only. 



If however the wonderful manner in which the 

 eastern states are watered is adverted to, the very 

 great quantity of these wet lands will strike the 

 mind, and disclose to it at once a capacity as great 

 for causing unheallhiness, as for producing profit; 

 and as in reaping the good we remove the evil, 

 an admiration of human nature is awakened, 

 when we see it brave the worst climates, and 

 court death abroad (or the sake of wealth, rather 

 than acquire it at home by highly improving a 

 tolerable one, and courting long lile. 



There is hardly a habitation in most of the east- 

 ern states, however distant from the larger rivers, 

 without the atmospherical influence of" this vast 

 mass of'creeks, bogs and rivulets; and according- 

 ly their effect is ahuost every where, in some de- 

 gree, experienced. Few of their channels retain 

 any appearance of their natural state, being every 

 where obstructed by sands, bogs, bushes and rub- 

 bish, 60 as to form innumerable putrid puddles, 

 pools and bogs, upon the occurrence of every 

 drought ; to several of which, all our summers 

 and autumns are liable. By stopping and spread- 

 ing the waters of our creeks and rivulets, they 

 soon cease to flow in droughts, and the water 

 which might be carried off in a healthy current at 

 all times, in wet seasons, poisons the earth, and in 

 dry, ihe air, because then evaporation becomes 

 its only channel. 



Every rational being will acknowledge, that 

 nothing can be more ridiculous than to kill our- 

 selves lor the sake of remaining poor, and nothing 

 wiser than to lengthen our lives for the sake of 

 becoming daily more comfortable. The latter 

 objects will both be certainly accomplished by 

 draining ©ur creeks, rivulets and bogs, so as to 

 bestow on them unobstructed currents, and to cul- 

 tivate their borders. In sandy countries, where 

 they are most extensive, valuable and pernicious, 

 their last quality ia most easi.ly removed, as I shall 

 endeavor to show. 



Side and straight ditches, where ditching is 

 necessary, ought generally to be abandoned, and 



the stream trained nearly to its natural course, 

 avoiding acute angles, and aiming at gentle sinu- 

 osiies. The loose texture of a sandy soil suggests 

 these precautions. In consequence of U, side 

 ditches are speedily filled up. Straight ditches 

 give an iinpetus to the current, exposing a crum- 

 bling soil to a constant abrasion, and devoting 

 the point upon which it expends its greatest fury 

 to great injury. Acute angles create strong cur- 

 rents and are unable to withstand weak ones. 

 The lowest ground is naturally the best for drains. 

 And gentle bends check the impetuosity of cur* 

 rents. From adhering to the lowest ground or 

 natural course of the stream, we may avail our- 

 selves to great extent of the stream itself towards) 

 perfecting the drain, by periodically removing 

 such obstructions as it is unable to remove, or dis- 

 closes in cutting a ditch for itself. These in the 

 sandy countries consist generally of old wood, oc- 

 casionally of veins of some more rigid species of 

 earth ; the first to be removed, the latter to be cut 

 through. In cutting ditches, widening channels, 

 paring off points, cleaning and deepening drains 

 of any kind, one of the most obvious, and most 

 common errors, is to leave the earth on their bor- 

 ders, so as to dam out a considerable portion of 

 the water the drain was intended to receive, and 

 to destroy all the crop within its influence. This 

 earth ought unexceptionably to be employed in 

 curing hollows, leaving the edges of the drain 

 every where lower than the adjacent ground. By 

 this means floods will seldomer occur, and more 

 rapidly return to the channel; because as the 

 water is every where trickling into the drain as 

 the rain falls, it has more time to dispose of it, and 

 for the same reason, an excess will sooner be re- 

 duced. I3oth the rapid and complete reduction of 

 floods is of great importance to crops, few of 

 which will sustain much injury from a very short 

 immersion. They are ruined forvvantof a remedy 

 against stagnant water. Drains in the lowest 

 ground, with edges lower than the ground design- 

 ed to be dried, aided by ridges and furrows, emp- 

 tying into the drains, will aflbrd this remedy, in 

 the most perfect manner. 



As all our streams have others falling into them, 

 and are attended with a multitude of springs 

 breaking out at the termination of the high land, 

 some substitute for the side ditches, so unsuccess- 

 fully tried for the purpose of intercepting these 

 rills and springs, is indispensable. 1 have tried 

 three with entire success, at an expense of labor 

 infinitely lees than that so frequently lost by adher- 

 ing to side ditches, in such cases as we are con- 

 sidering. If the tributary stream rises beyond the 

 ground we are draining, it is managed by the 

 same principles as the chief stream, so far up- 

 wards as is necessary. If it rises in a bold spring 

 at the junction of ihe hills with the flat we are re- 

 claiming, a channel is made for it in the lowest 

 ground, and by the shortest distance, to the central 

 drain, as narrow as the the spade will allow, never 

 more than eighteen inches deep, with perpendicu- 

 lar sides, which in these narrow cuts last much 

 longer than slopes, because they are not equally 

 exposed to frosts. If springs ooze in a continued 

 line at the junction of the hill and flat, a side cut 

 as narrow as possible and deep enough to inter- 

 sect them all, with a direct cut as above to the 

 main drain, is one remedy. The labor of these 

 cuts is trifling. The last, however, like all ditches* 



