TILE DRAINAGE. 57 



tensive plowing and a successful rotation of crops. So I be- 

 gan thorouvli drainage about 15 years ago, having before that 

 time " tiled out" several " swales,' 1 or depressions, and seen 

 the excellent results. As already stated, I thoroughly tiled 

 about 13 acres of my young orchard, laying laterals between 

 all rows of trees, 38 feet apart, and 30 inches deep. This field 

 had been quite well manured in the past much better than 

 any other equal area on the farm. But still the crops would 

 fail, as already stated. But since the drainage, this land, 

 and all other areas drained and fertilized, have been reliable 

 for tillage and crop rotation. 



The big wheat crop on the orchard, to wit, 465 bushels 

 from 10 acres, already mentioned, and the fine clover that 

 followed, were my first rewards for tile drainage. They so 

 encouraged me, that, in 1878, I undertook the thorough 

 drainage of 8| acres of smooth meadow, and then of 36 acres 

 of rough and exceedingly unproductive pasture land. It was 

 so thin in soil, and so subject to drouth in May, July, and 

 August, that it was of little real value. The whole 36 acres 

 would hardly give summer pasture to seven cows. Mr. 

 Theodore ("lark, of southern Portage County (a fruit and 

 wheat region), came by one day during a drouth, and stopped 

 and said : 



"I believe that is the most barren-looking field I ever saw. 

 It looks like Sahara. r 



And it was true then, 16 years ago. The exclusive and 

 close grazing of this whole region left the soil dry and hot in 

 summer, and showers could not seem to fall upon it any more 

 than upon Sahara. They would go around us, following the 

 forests, swamps, and water-courses in all directions from us. 

 In particular on my farm it would not rain, oftentimes, when 

 it rained on a large forest less than half a mile north, and an- 

 other not half a mile southeast of me. 



