SECRETARY'S REPORT. 215 



large estates, where the outlay is of no account, tile is the only 

 material for conduits. There is something approaching the 

 beauty of the arterial circulation in the exquisite working of a 

 perfect system of tile drainage. 



But in the instance we have supposed, when, in addition to 

 the reasons presented, it is remembered that the displacement of 

 one tile by an inch, through action of frost or other cause, or 

 the filling of the tile with sand or silt, which often happens, 

 utterly destroys the conduit, we cannot but believe stone of 

 greater efficacy. 



It is impossible to exaggerate the good effects of judicious 

 drainage. 



Money thus expended is far better invested than it would be 

 in adding other acres to the farm, or in the purchase of fancy 

 fertilizers. It is the grand manufactory of all the phosphates 

 and the super-phosphates that you have erected under your own 

 soil. 



Any one who has planted potatoes in March, in the field where 

 he could not once plant them in May ; or who has seeu his grass, 

 after cutting three tons to the acre, green and fresh, while his 

 neighbor's was yellow as straw ; or who has stood by the outlet 

 of his drain system and seen the water gushing out, where 

 before it was left to stagnate in the soil, to wash over its surface, 

 and to chill it by evaporation, must feel the most ardent desire 

 to persuade farmers to provide for themselves the same great 

 source of happiness. 



If anything herein contained will induce the farmers of Mas- 

 sachusetts, who have hitherto been discouraged by the expense 

 of thorough-draining, to begin a system which will, in the end, 

 render them the most ardent converts to the art, the object of 

 this Report will be secured. 



This Report having been accepted, Mr. Clement, as chair- 

 man of the committee, submitted the following Report on 



WOODLANDS AND FOREST TREES. 



Woodlands and forest trees have been written about and talked 

 upon many times. The shameful waste practised to an alarm- 

 ing extent formerly, and latterly in a more limited degree, has 

 often called forth a sharp rebuke from the more thoughtful and 



