78 Our Farming. 



truth whatever. Such is the fate of men who dare think and act 

 a little out of the old rut, but it seems hard that good men will 

 try to undermine the influence of fellow-workers for the best good 

 of agriculture. 



I think it must be plain to all that until you can mostly stop 

 this freezing and thawing on the surface, this lifting of clover and 

 wheat roots, these crops will not be very safe. There will be a 

 good deal of luck about growing them. Oh ! how all good farm- 

 ing sort of links together. But, now, some will say : ' ' But will 

 not this tile draining make the soil too dry in a dry time ? are we 

 not overdoing the matter?" No. The draining only takes off 

 the surplus water. There is plenty left in the soil that it will hold 

 for ordinary times. In a dry time capillary attraction brings up 

 moisture from the subsoil, the great storehouse, even from quite 

 a depth. If we do our full part in the matter of culture \ve need 

 seldom fail of excellent returns. Practically, I think w T ell-tiled 

 land stands drouth better than undrained. When at institutes, in 

 Northwestern Ohio, two or three years ago, I determined to find 

 out what the leading farmers there thought about draining being 

 overdone. Just at that time there was some talk of this kind in 

 the papers, coming, I fear, from those who practically knew 

 nothing about the matter, just as most all opposition to good 

 things does. As our minister puts it: "A man doesn't know 

 anything about truth until he is true." There is a good deal in 

 this. Well, these farmers in the level lowlands of Northwestern 

 Ohio ought to know something about tile draining, on this prin- 

 ciple, as they have done very much of it. Let me give you a few 

 extracts from notes taken. One old gentleman said : "Twenty- 

 five years ago a man who did not shake three months in the year 

 was ostracised. Health now is No. i ; crops benefited 100 per 

 cent. ; have lived here thirty-three years ; drainage is not over- 

 done ; we have not done enough." Another said : " Any man 

 must be crazy who has lived in this county and seen results and 

 says draining has been overdone." This man was the oldest 

 pioneer present. He said, further : " Fifty-one years ago was the 

 driest season ever known in this county, and there was not a ditch 

 then, just quagmires and swamps." A county officer was called 

 on for facts. He said : "The best drained farms in this county 

 have the best buildings, the owners are the best dressed and most 

 intelligent, and at the Recorder's office you will find them the 

 most free from mortgages." 



You all know of Col. J. H. Brigham, now master of the 

 National Grange, a man who has the interest of fanners at heart 

 and is one of them. Well, he was there and was called out. He 

 said : " Draining will not always pay 100 per cent. It will not 

 pay to drain grass or pasture land. I have' drained as much as 

 any man in the county. Drainage has affected some shallow 

 wells, but not the season." One man said he laid the first tiles 



