o8 TILE IX 



EFFECTS OF TILING, TILLAGE, AND TREE-PLANTING UPON 

 RAINFALL. 



Well, I went ahead, and now I have nearly 65 acres tiled, 

 tilled, and in rotation with line crops ; 15 acres of dense 

 orchard, hedges, and roadside maples, a veritable green oasis 

 where once there was what seemed almost a desert, often, in 

 July, August, and September. Wheat, clover, heavy timo- 

 thy, dense orchard, maples, and hedges, with their cool and 

 solid green, invite showers, and thy com?. Particularly I 

 notice that the orchard, which extends northerly to my ma- 

 ple grove, while the latter merges into the large forest still 

 further north, owned by several of my neighbors this dense 

 orchard (with the big green crops) seems to draw the showers 

 southward from the north woods, and northward from the 

 south woods, so that now the showers are solid over the 

 whole farm. I think the orchard well nigh pays for itself in 

 the increased rainfall My neighbors all about me, too, are 

 tile-draining more, and plowing and cultivating more, and 

 substituting a mixed agriculture for the exclusive dairy- 

 grazing specialty that had proved so un profitable and so 

 drouth-producing ; and the whole region is becoming better 

 watered, less subject to drouth in summer, and far more fer- 

 tile arid profitable in crops. 



To return to my draining : I had drained all Jnit about 15 

 acres of the 65, when, in May, 1880, 1 was unexpectedly made 

 Secretary of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, and left 

 the farm, and suspended the drainage almost entirely for 

 eleven years. In May, Ib86, I was as unexpectedly chosen 

 President of the Iowa Agricultural (College. November 13, 

 1890, 1 resigned that presidency, and within a week I had 

 begun, and within six weeks nearly finished, the remaining 

 15 acres. 



I have given these personal details, and might give many 

 more, to show why I believe in the thorough, systematic 

 tile drainage of such soils as mine, which by nature are unfit 

 for extended tillage. From past experience and experiments 



