TILE DKAINAGE. 127 



you should come down to my creek-bottom ground when we 

 are gathering crops, and see the wonderful growth that we 

 have right in these very low places, where the frogs and 

 toads ten years ago used to hold kt high carnival " during the 

 greater part of the season. Underneath the rich black earth 

 of the surface is a porous, gravelly subsoil, such as is usually 

 found, I believe, on such creek bottoms. With the aid of 

 the deep ditch I have described, no underdraining is required 

 on this ground for a good many rods back ; and the growth 

 of all kinds of fruits and vegetables here is perfectly wonder- 

 ful. When I first began to plow up a certain portion of this 

 creek bottom, one of my best men tied his horses to a tree 

 and came back and told me he didn't believe I could ever 

 make any sort of garden in that ground. But I told him to 

 go ahead. But he again declared that I never could get 

 crops from the ground to pay the expense of digging out the 

 stones and roots, and getting it ready for plowing. I bade 

 him go back and stick to his job. The first crop on that 

 ground was onions, and it paid big. After onions we put on 

 the celery, and we have had celery, early or late, on the 

 ground almost ever since. A year or two ago, just for ex- 

 periment I secured three paying crops on this very piece of 

 ground. First, we picked a tremendous crop of Sharpless 

 strawberries. When the last berry was picked the straw- 

 berries were turned under, and a crop of radishes was put 

 on the ground. They grew so quickly that we commenced 

 selling them on the wagon just thirty days after the seed was 

 sown. Then we put turnips between the radishes, and had 

 an enormous crop of turnips. And so it has been ever since. 

 This ground is cropped incessantly, from the time the frost 

 leaves it until it freezes up again. This can scarcely be 

 called an open ditch; for at some seasons of the year it car- 

 ries a swift stream perhaps three feet deep and six feet wide. 



SURFACE DRAINING. 



Friend Chamberlain has had but little to say in regard to 



