142 



Keep your Land Dry. — Beet and Com-StaUi Si/gar. Vol. ^ 



level, or pcrliaps lower down, spouts or springs 

 burst tlirnuij^h the subsoil, a tliinij very com- 

 mon in hilly districts, the waters from which, 

 finding an easy passage through the loose 

 soil, spread and run down the slope, and upon 

 the subsoil and through the flat, till they find 

 their level in the brook. A thermometer 

 plunged down to the subsoil, will indicate, at 

 midsummer, a temperature probably not great- 

 er than 60°, whereas to grow and mature 

 many of our best farm crops, we require a 

 heat in the soil of 70° or 80°. How shall 

 we remedy this evil, and render this land 

 profitable to the occupant ? Simply by mak- 

 ing an under-drain or drains in a gently in- 

 clining direction, a little below these spouts 

 or springs, and, if practicable, somewhat into 

 the subsoil. These will catcii and conduct 

 off the spouting waters, and by laying the 

 lower plane dry and permeable to heat and 

 air, develope all its natural powers of fertil- 

 ity. 



I will suppose another case — that of a flat 

 surface, underlaid by an impervious subsoil. 

 This is rendered unproductive, or difficult to 

 manage, by stagnant waters. The rain and 

 snow waters, penetrating the soil, are arrest- 

 ed in their downward passage, by the subsoil, 

 which not having slope to pass them off, they 

 here remain, and stagnate, and putrefy, alike 

 prejudicial to vegetable and animal health. 

 The mode of draining such grounds, and of 

 rendering them productive and of easy man- 

 agement, is, first to surround the field with a 

 good under-drain, and to construct a sufficient 

 open drain from the outlay to carry off the 

 •waters. Then with the plough, throw the 

 land into ridges of twenty to thirty feet in 

 breadth, according to the tenacity of the soil, 

 in the direction of the slope, and sink an un- 

 der-drain in each of the furrows between the 

 ridges, terminating them in the lower cross 

 drain. The materials of the under-drains, 

 which are generally stones, should be laid so 

 low as to admit of the free passage of the 

 plough over them. The superfluous water, 

 by the laws of gravitation, settles into these 

 drains and passes ofl^, and the soil becomes 

 dry, manageable and productive. An ac- 

 quaintance called upon a Scotch i'armer 

 whose farm had been under-drained in this 

 way, and being informed that the improve- 

 ment cost sixteen dollars an acre, tile liaving 

 been used, remarked that it was a costly im- 

 provement. "Yes" was the farmer's reply; 

 " but it costs a deal mair 7iol to do it" which 

 he illustrated by pointing to an adjoining 

 farm, like situated, which had not been drain- 

 ed, and was overgrown with rusluis and with 

 sedge grass, and then to his own fields, teem- 

 ing with lu.xuriance and rich in the indica- 

 tions of an abundant Iiarvest. 



I have dwelt upon the subject of draining 



with more detail, because I have persona 

 realized its benefits, and am sure it may 

 gone into with certain prospect of reward 

 Judge Duel. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Beet and Corn-Stalk Sugar. 



Mr. Editor, — Is it not passing stran 

 that the fabrication of sugar from the b 

 has never yet been able to make h( 

 amongst us ] It cannot be for want of cf 

 tal or industry, for it has often been taken 

 in good faith and worked for a time with 

 most promising results, but the promise 

 pay has never finally been fulfilled. Neitl 

 can the failure be attributed to a want of 

 genuity, for there has scarcely a trial b( 

 made without a flourish of trumpets tha 

 new discovery had taken place in the art, 

 which a larger quantity of sugar and of vi 

 superior quality to any that had been m; 

 in France, had been produced, by the veri 

 tyro of the profession, who has worked w 

 closed doors, that the secret might be kepi 

 himself, and a patent be secured for his ] 

 vate advantage — and how regularly has cl 

 ing the concern followed ! Now, I und 

 stand that no secret is practised in Fran 

 but there the thing goes quietly forward, tu 

 ing out sugar to almost any amount, and 

 pretence to mystery, by which the system 

 to produce miraculously. The fact seems 

 be, that we Americans are not content to 

 on in the usual track, and become perf 

 through practice; we are led away by 1 

 belieti that we can find a short cut, and Sc 

 time and labour, and despise the old jog-t 

 road that leads to perfection, forgetting I 

 old adage, " the more haste the worse speei 



I find, in the American Farmer lor the p 

 sent week, a very recent account of the sti 

 of the beet-sugar business in France, wh; 

 I copy for publication in your pages. By I 

 way, would the editor of that highly respe 

 able periodical inform us of the success whi 

 has attended the last attempt at or near B 

 timore, by a company under the charge 

 the former agent of the Beet-sugar Soci( 

 of White Pigeon, Michigan. I much f( 

 that it has again fallen through, as we wt 

 given to expect to be furnished with an ; 

 count of its progress from time to tin 

 through the pages of that work. 



"Mons. Michel Chevalier published li 

 month an interesting exposition of the be 

 sugar manufacture. In France there are 8 

 factories, which yield, the present year, 

 millions of pounds of sugar ; and, notwil 

 standing the outcry of universal ruin, rais 

 by the manufacturers when the tax was i 

 creased from eleven to twenty-seven frar 

 the iiOOlbs., the production did not diniini 



