r ) ynE GENESEE FAKMEE. 267 ( ^ 



favorable change in public opinion. Such a change is inevitable, although it may not 

 come in the lifetime of the writer. All should plant good seed in the best soil that can 

 be found, and leave the harvest, if need be, to the next generation. It is better to plant 

 for posterity than not at all. 



EXPERIMENTS ON DRAINING. 



In the April number, page 109, will be found an article on underdraining, in which we 

 detailed the best means to be adopted for removing stagnant and spring water from 

 land, and also our opinion of the reason for and necessity of Mno?er-draining — making 

 the soil a filter, in which the rain water, as it percolates through to the drains, shall 

 leave its ammonia, the most important and beneficial of fertilizers, for the wheat and 

 corn crops — thinking that a thorough system of under-draining would do more to 

 remove the innumerable insects, blights, and rusts, which now make such fearful devas- 

 tation on our crops, than all other modern improvements combined. We believe, also, 

 that on most wheat soils — those even which are usually considered sufliciently dry 

 already — under-draining would, for a few years at least, add one half to the present 

 crops of wheat, clover, <fec., and the land would ever afterward be permanently improved, 

 the beneficial action of manure more apparent, and the soil be in that condition best 

 suited to attract fertilizing gases fi-om the atmosphere. There is no question but what 

 underdraining has been the great means by which the agriculture of Great Britain has 

 been so much improved during the last half century, and that its adoption would be 

 equally beneficial on this continent. 



Will it pay ? is, therefore, the great question ; for, if it will, there will be found no 

 lack of energy and enterprise among our land-owning farmers, to push it forward with 

 vigor. All that is necessary for its general adoption, is to show that it can be so done 

 as to yield good profits. Where land is worth but $15 or |20 per acre, it may not pay 

 to expend $25 to $30 per acre in underdraining it ; but where undrained land is worth 

 from $60 to $100 per acre, there can be no doubt that an additional $30 per acre, judi- 

 ciously expended in underdraining, would be a first rate investment. There is in most 

 of our soils an abundance of organic and inorganic food of plants, which they can not 

 obtain on account of stagnant water excluding the air, without which no healthy decom- 

 position can take place, or plants thrive, and which underdraining would render in a fit 

 state for assimilation. 



In the Transact iona of the JV. Y. State Ag. Society for 1852, is given an account of 

 experiments on draining, by Mr. John Johnston, of Seneca county, N. Y., and by the 

 Hon. TiiERON G. Yeomans, of Walworth, Wayne county, N. Y., to whom the Society 

 has awarded premiums. The statements of these gentlemen are exceedingly interesting 

 and instructive, and did th-e limits of. our paper permit, we should like to lay the whole 

 of them before our readers, but must be content to give extracts only. Mr. Johnston's 

 farm is near Geneva, situated on the rich clay ridge which extends from the Seneca 

 river southerly to Tompkins county — a ridge of land devoted chiefly to the cultivation 

 of wheat. He has been making efforts for more perfect drainage since 1835, when he 

 imported from Scotland some patterns of draining tile, and caused them to be made by 

 hand in his neighborhood. The beneficial effects were such as to induce the Hon. John 

 Delafield, Esq., to import in 1848 a machine for making tile in Seneca county, since 

 which time the price of tile has been greatly reduced, and " no excuse exists for wet 

 fields, or grain being destroyed by freezing out." 



"The question as to the depth of drains has always been one of interest, and some uncertainty. On 

 this point I deem it absurd to propose any fixed rules, as the depth must depend upon the formation 

 of the land and the nature of the soil. The rule adopted by me, is first to select a good outlet for the 



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