172 



XEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



April 



one of the towerlike prominences, up to the top of 

 the mountain. It seems actually impossible to 

 believe, as you look at the precipice, that human 

 hands could work out a way, by which a mule or 

 even a human being could ascend, but down the 

 steep descent we M-alked in safety. In many 

 places the path is cut by drilling and blasting in- 

 to the solid wall, so that we passed along on a 

 shelf four or five feet in width, with a very steep 

 descent in the path, looking down many hun- 

 dreds of feet into the chasm below. We were 

 told that a stone would fall, at one point, six- 

 teen hundred feet, before it struck any other ob- 

 ject, but that must be an exaggeration. What- 

 ever may be the height, it is a fearful passage for 

 timid persons to make, and the sick who are car- 

 ried over it to the hot baths below, are blind- 

 folded, that their nerves may not be shaken by 

 the sight of the precipice. 



Before arriving at the pass, our senses had 

 been somewhat quickened by an incident which 

 though not unusual, does not befal every party. 

 Passing under a high ridge, we were startled by 

 a crash, like the report of artillery, with echoing 

 reverberations. The mules all stopped and looked 

 wildly up, and the guides shouted "an avalanche ! 

 au avalanche !" and for a moment we looked up- 

 ward in apprehension that it might cross our 

 path ; but the sound soon died away, and we pro- 

 ceeded. When we had nearly reached the bot- 

 tom of the narrow path, we again heard a crash, 

 and soon came a rush of earth and stones pour- 

 ing over a cliff in front of us, nearly down to the 

 track which lay before us, and scattering Avith a 

 terrific sound over the slope at the foot. The 

 rain and snow had loosened the earth on the 

 mountains, and caused an unusual tumult for our 

 edification. It seems as if the people of these 

 mountain countries courted destruction in the se- 

 lection of their homes. Three times has the vil- 

 lage at the foot of this pass been overwhelmed 

 and destroyed by avalanches, and yet it is re- 

 Iniilt, and relying on artificial walls which have 

 been constructed behind the town to stop the im- 

 pending ruin, they buy and sell, and float in the 

 baths as securely as if in the midst of a prairie. 



All along the sides of these mountains, the av- 

 alanches have cut their paths. Any slide of earth 

 or rock or snow is called an avalanche. Most fre- 

 quently this terrible destruction is in the form of 

 large masses of rock and earth, which in the 

 spring, by the action of water and frost, split off 

 from the face of the mountain, and descend with 

 such power upon the plain, as to sweep away in 

 their progress large forest trees, cutting a track 

 9£ rM,er desolation through woods and vineyards, 

 and over whole villages even, as it were in a sin- 

 gle moment. 



Soon, we were below the snow clouds which 



were still visible like a white mantle, on the 

 mountain peaks, and quietly walking in a warm 

 summer sun amid green fields in the valley. The 

 whole passage from summer to midwinter and 

 back again to midsummer, occupied but six hours, 

 and although we saw nothing of the fine views 

 that are usually had from the summit of the 

 mountain, we felt satisfied with the strange, wild 

 scenes through which we had passed, though not 

 sori'y that our passage was an experience rather 

 than a present reality. And at the foot of the 

 Gemmi Pass, we will for the present take a rest. 



H. F. F. 



Fu7- the Neic EitgLrnd Farmer. 

 DRAIlSriNG AND IRRIGATION. 



A correspondent, over the signature of "S. 

 F.," in the weekly Farmer of 6th inst., writes up- 

 on thorough draining and irrigation,recovam.ei\(\- 

 ing the latter as well suited to our climate and 

 soil, and condemning the former as an English 

 process imported with the "theoretical agricul- 

 ture" that "comes directly from that country," 

 and not required in New England. "S. F." 

 seems to be aware that "thorough draining" has 

 been successfully tried in England, but he cannot 

 be well informed of the extent, methods, or re 

 suits of this great modern improvement in agri- 

 culture, which has added 25 per cent, to the pro- 

 ducts of British soil in as many years, and which 

 with its predecessors, rotation of crops and the 

 turnip culture, now enables English farmers to 

 compete successfully with the cheap prairie land 

 of the West, and the cheap labor of the East, in 

 growing wheat without the protection of the corn 

 laws. 



He says, "But must the English practice of 

 thorough draining and hob-nail shoes be fol- 

 lowed in the United States ? Is draining with 

 tiles 'the next great step to be taken in the 

 march of improvement on all our old farms' in 

 New England ? Will any one who ever did so 

 much at farming as to dig a hole in the ground 

 in this country, adopt the language of Mr. Smith, 

 which I have put in italic letters, when he draws 

 up a description of the soil and the subsoil through 

 which he penetrated? Or will he infer from the 

 dry sand and the loose gravel which here gener- 

 ally lies from five to fifty feet over any thing 'sat- 

 urated with water,' that the American farmer 

 must expend twice the value of his farm to rid 

 himself of the 'surplus fluid ?' " 



The theory of Mr. Smith, of Deanston, does 

 not assert that draining is required for "dry sand 

 and loose gravel overlying from five to fifty feet 

 any thing saturated with water." It goes to the 

 extent of laying dry, retentive soils, of lowering 

 the "water table" to a proper depth beneath such 

 soils, that they may become, in respect of the pas- 

 sage of water through them, like sand or loose 

 gravel, and furnish its free descent by gravitation. 

 Applied first to very wet or heavy soils, and found 

 so beneficial, it was extended with success to oth- 

 ers of a lighter character, clay loams, and even 

 sandy loams, such as the light lands of Norfolk, 

 now famous for its "rotation" as for sheep and 

 other husbandry. 



But admitting it to be useless for sand and 



