EXPERIMENTS IN DRAINING. 293 



latitude, and are destroyed in others, is more to be 

 attributed to excessive moisture in the soil during 

 cold weather than to all other causes combined. 

 }nly estimate the increased value of the land 

 by saying that I have the past year made over 

 1,200 rods on 20 acres, at a cost of about $25 per 

 acre ; and that I should not permit such land to re- 

 main without such draining, even were the expense 

 doubled. Most of the lands so drained have been 

 purchased by me immediately preceding the con- 

 struction of the drains, and their very recent con- 

 struction precludes the possibility of giving the 

 specific and comparative productive capacity before 

 and after draining ; though on much of it very light 

 crops have been grown for many years past, and no 

 good crop of wheat has been raised on it for a long 

 time; but the reason has not heretofore, to my 

 knowledge, been ascribed to an excess of water, 

 which I believe to have been the principal cause of 

 the non-productiveness of the land. From the ex- 

 perience of two seasons on the small quantity first 

 drained, I am of the opinion that the increased value 

 of the land is much greater than the cost of con- 

 structing the drains, but more time is needed to fully 

 test with accuracy the benefits to result therefrom. 



Thus 1 have in three years constructed over nine 

 13* 



