CHAPTER IX. 



TII,E DRAINING. 



F I were intending to buy a farm that had a heavy 

 soil, a -clay or clay loam, such as are most bene- 

 fited by tile draining, and if two farms were offered 

 me exactly alike in other respects, but one thoroughly 

 tile drained and the other not, with a price of $50 

 an acre on the one not drained and $80 on the other, 

 I would unhesitatingly take the latter. I would do it if I had 

 but one or two thousand to pay down and must go in debt for the 

 rest, because I should expect to pay out quicker on the more 

 costly farm and then have something better when I got through. 



But this statement needs some qualifying. It goes without 

 saying that if I bought such a farm, even to keep stock on, to 

 make that a leading feature, and if the land was reasonably 

 adapted for tillage, that is, was not hilly, that I should want in Ohio, 

 say, to grow clover, wheat and corn. And if intending to put in such 

 crops I should want conditions right for raising a large paying crop. 

 This is the way I feel after many years' experience in draining and 

 with drained land and after hearing much from others who have 

 drained. Again, if I bought a clay farm I would run in debt for 

 money to drain it all thoroughly as far as it was to be plowed and 

 as fast as it was plowed. I would not break up a field without 

 first draining it. As my friend William Strong says, I would 

 plant tiles before planting a crop, every time. I am not sort of 

 on the fence in this matter, or half-hearted, but I would do it or 

 let the farm alone. I would do it with a feeling of more certainty 

 that I would get my pay than I had when I gave the money for 

 the land itself. As one good friend expressed it at an institute 

 last winter : " Good farming is thrown away on wet land." It is 

 too much a matter of luck. And still when I am asked, as I 

 often am, whether I would advise any one to go in debt for tiles, 

 I dare not say yes, because so much depends on the man, whether 

 he will follow up his draining with good farming that will bring 

 the money out of his venture; and, again, whether the draining 

 will be thoroughly well done, or whether it will soon be practi- 

 cally of little value. Tile draining is simply the foundation next 

 to the farm itself of all good profitable farming on land that 

 needs it. I wish I could grind this into every reader who has 

 such land. There is no more question to-day as to its truth than 

 that two and two make four. 

 (74) 



