15 ) THE GENESEE FARMER. 237 (f^ 



that it is a pennanent investment — when once well done it will last a century or more. 

 It is not like laying out $7 per acre in guano or other manure, which lasts but for one 

 3-ear, or two at most. It is a perpetual means of obtaining increased crops. The 100 

 lbs. of ammonia contained in the rain which falls on an acre per annum, can not be 

 purchased in guano, its cheapest artificial source, for less than $15. Greater part of 

 this is lost on an undrained soil, while on one that is well underdrained the whole of it 

 is or may be retained. The expense of cultivation is less on the drained than the 

 undrained land. You can plow it earlier in the spring and later in the fall ; and after 

 heavy rains, when the land not drained is so wet that man nor beast can go on it, the 

 drained soil will be in fine condition to work. The whole of the increase in crops 

 obtained from draining must be considered dear profit. We believe one-third increase 

 to be a low estimate ; and as this one-third of the entire produce of the farm is clear 

 profit, it will pay a high interest on the thirty dollars invested in underdraining. Any 

 farm which from its location is worth $40 to $100 per acre, if it needs draining, can not 

 fail to i5ay a handsome interest for money judiciously laid out in underdraining. 



The effect of thorough drainage on the climate of a country, is a subject too extensivo 

 and important to be discussed at this time. That it has a marked eftect on climate, 

 can not be doubted. Prior to the general adoption of underdraining in England, the 

 wheat crop was generally affected with mildew, rust, smut, and various insects, to such 

 an extent that the crop was quite uncertain ; with the introduction of underdraining 

 these blighting effects were removed, while ague, which was common before, is wholly 

 unknown now. 



Shade trees and forests, like large bodies of water, are well known to be great mod- 

 erators of cold in winter and heat in summer. The disappearance of such vast forests 

 has seriously affected the climate of this continent ; hence peaches and other fruits are 

 not those certain crops they were twenty years ago. The climatic equilibrium has been 

 disturbed, and must be restored. We must cease to cut down so recklessly the noble 

 forests, and at the same time must plant shade trees. This will have some effect ; but 

 we submit, that thorough underdraining will be found the best and most economical 

 means of equalizing the climate, removing the insects, &c., which make such fearful 

 devastion with the crops, and of improving our national agriculture. — J. H. 



WHEAT-CULTURE. 



Such of our readers as grow wheat, are now generally engaged in preparing the land 

 for seed. Often as we have, in the earlier volumes of this journal, urged the impor- 

 tance of cultivating the land in the most thorough manner, as others have likewise done, 

 ja't, among the millions that raise wheat, bad tillage is still the common and injurious 

 practice of American fjirmers. Slovenly plowing and defective harrowing were learned 

 as a trade in early youth, when land was much cheaper, and richer in virgin fertility 

 than it now is ; and the bad habits thus acquired are followed, like the chewing and 

 smoking of tobacco, in all after life, from the mere force of custom alone. Many a good 

 resolution to reform ends in a feeble and fruitless attempt to break the ties that bind 

 one to foHies and practices which had their origin in circumstances that no longer exist. 

 If ever excusable, where land was plenty, labor scarce, and the implements of husbandry 

 few and worthless in comparison with those now possessed, we at this time look in vain 

 for anything to justify the continuance of the practice of growing so much cockle, chess 

 or cheat, red root, garlic, and other foul weeds and pests, in fields of wheat. In the old 

 districts of Maryland and Virginia, where we have spent the recent harvest, and raised 

 a small crop of eleven acres of wheat, in the District of Columbia, the foulness of thp land 



