EXPERIMENTS IN DRAINING. 291 



cents per rod, and with four-inch tile about 56 cents. 

 The laborer who does this work, (for one man does 

 about all of it,) clears through the whole season about 

 $1.37 cents per day ; and as an evidence that the 

 sub-soil is hard, I will mention that the sharpening 

 of the picks for the 1,200 rods cost over $5 ; and 

 this fact, taken in connection with the wages he 

 earned, will show that he is such a laborer as is 

 seldom found ; and I will say that his equal 1 have 

 never found. His name is Timothy McGarvy, and 

 should not be omitted in this article. 



Some of the advantages derived from draining, 

 are that the ground becomes about as dry in two or 

 three days after the frost comes out in the spring, 

 or after a heavy rain, as it would do in as many 

 weeks before draining ; enabling the farmer to work 

 his land at almost any time he may desire to do so ; 

 it also dries it uniformly alike, all over the field, so 

 that in plowing, he does not find spots of wet and 

 dry, but is all in good condition at once. It causes 

 the lowest places, which are generally too wet at 

 seed time, and consequently produced but little if 

 any crop, to produce the best of any part of the 

 field, being generally the richest soil, from having 

 had the wash of the surface of the land about it for 

 many years. 



