TILE DRAINAGE. 129 



The land was thrown up into beds between roadways, be- 

 ing a little the highest in the center. These roadways were 

 used for paths for walking, or for running wheelbarrows or 

 running a light wagon to gather crops and distribute manure. 

 Where the roadways crossed, compost-heaps were made, 

 where all useless vines and weeds, trash and rubbish, were 

 stored and composted. This enabled him, in plowing, to 

 clear every thing out of the way of the team. Now, during 

 these excessively heavy rains, the water stood in the roadways 

 instead of on the crops. I hardly need tell you that Mr. 

 Smith stands perhaps almost at the head of market-gardeners 

 in the United States. I have visited most of the great gar- 

 deners, and I have never seen any thing like Mr. Smith's 

 forty acres. 



FILLING UP DEPRESSIONS, ETC. 



You will notice, from the above, that I recommend having 

 ground gradually brought into such shape that there will be 

 no depressions where water may stand for even an hour. 

 Friend Terry, in the strawberry - book, urges this quite 

 strongly'; and so thoroughly have I become convinced of the 

 importance of it that we had men go over the ground with 

 shovels just before the last plowing, and take the soft earth 

 from the higher portions and throw it into the depressions. 

 This was particularly needed in my creek-bottom land, where 

 the water, by its many years of coursing this way and that, 

 had made little hillocks, and depressions to match, in various 

 places throughout the ground. I noticed that, where water 

 stood for only a few hours on certain crops, it seemed to 

 harm them ; and by filling these depressions, and making 

 the general lay of the land so the water would run off in 

 some direction, I avoided having wet places in certain rows. 

 You may object that this is a great deal of trouble ; but, 

 please remember that, if the land is once got into proper 

 shape, it is so for ever ; and the sight of a field with no de- 

 pressions where water can stand and make certain spots in 



