76 Our Farming. 



potatoes. Farmers should figure as other businessmen. If an 

 investment in tiles will pay a certain 10 or 12 per cent, per annum, 

 it is a big thing, one that no other business on earth would ignore. 

 It is not reasonable to expect to get all the investment back in 

 one or two crops, and still in extreme cases one may. Because 

 one has not the money to do the draining, does not alter the fact. 

 We should not blame farming because it does not pay when the 

 very foundation of success is neglected. It is one's misfortune if 

 he cannot raise the money to start his farming on a solid basis, 

 not the fault of the business. But, later, I mean to show you 

 that, no matter how poor you may be, you can drain your land and 

 not get in debt. You can hardly be worse off than we were when 

 our draining was done. I did not go in debt for draining 

 (although with the experience I have had I would now) , and I 

 dare not advise friends I do not personally know to do this, but 

 I can tell you just how to do it without and with entire safety. 



But, first, let us look at some of the reasons for draining a 

 little more fully. We drain to remove surplus water from the 

 soil, first of all. Where water soaks right down, as on gravelly 

 and sandy loams, there is no need of tile draining for ordinary 

 farm crops. My friend, J. M. Smith, of Wisconsin, the noted 

 gardener, has even his sandy land tiled, and surface drains two 

 rods and a half apart, also, the tile drains being under the open 

 furrows or surface drains. This pays in his line, in enabling him 

 to get onto his land almost immediately after a shower. You all 

 know that crops cannot thrive when their roots are in water- 

 soaked soil. This water may stand on the surface some, but will 

 do about as much harm if it stands in the soil. In a dry time the 

 clay soil, if managed well, may be all right for growing a good 

 crop. Draining makes it all right, nearly always, when crops 

 would otherwise be a failure. Drainage takes out the stagnant 

 water the surplus that goes down through the sandy soil, and 

 makes the heavier soil more like the lighter one, easier worked 

 and quicker worked after a rain. Tile drainage makes the soil 

 somewhat warmer, by taking surplus water out of the bottom, 

 instead of leaving it to evaporate. Evaporation cools the soil, 

 chills it. When I got out of our bath-tub the other night I was 

 comfortably warm, coming from water warmed to 100. But, in 

 a moment, as the water began to evaporate, or be taken up by the 

 air, I felt cold, although there was a warm fire in the room. 

 When you sweat freely you do not ieel the heat so much, because 

 the evaporation cools you. Just so when the air takes the water 

 from your clay soil, instead of the tiles taking it, the soil is made 

 colder. This is partly why your wheat is so slow to start in the 

 spring on wet clay land. 



Then, water, as it comes from the clouds, has more or less 

 fertility in it. The ammonia from your neighbors' manure heaps, 

 dead animals, etc., etc., rises, and water, coming through the air, 



