154 Worcester society. 



winter, and the fertilizing matter derived from it, and if used 

 for pasture, twenty acres divided into four or five lots will 

 pasture more stock than if fed in one lot. For the improve- 

 ment on these lands by removing stones, brush, &c., Mi:. 

 Dodge deserves commendation ; and by the improvement con- 

 sequent to irrigation and drainage, he affords an example to 

 all, possessing wet cold lands, worthy of imitation. It is an 

 old adage that water is wealth ; and ancient history informs 

 us, that the early and most successful efforts of agriculture 

 were directed to the supply of water to the various objects 

 of cultivation. The promise made to the Israelites was, 

 " The land whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the 

 land of Egypt, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst 

 it with thy foot as a garden of herbs : but the land whither 

 thou goest is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water 

 of the rain of heaven." Verily, our land is a land of hills and 

 valleys, and some of it drinketh water of the rain of heaven to 

 repletion. Irrigation and drainage are two modes by which 

 the cultivator of the soil may, under different circumstances, 

 dispose of water : some may score the surface of their thirsty 

 fields with water courses, and court the presence of water, to 

 supply the wants of vegetation, while others, finding their 

 lands within the debatable margin of two elements, must 

 encounter it as the worst enemy to successful cultivation. The 

 practice of Mr. Dodge is not in accordance with the opinion 

 entertained by the committee, as to depth, direction, and dis- 

 tance apart, drains should be cut; Mr. Dodge has cut his 

 drains from three to three and a half feet deep, some of them 

 oblique to the steepest ascents of the land, and six and a half 

 rods apart. The committee believe that drains, to produce the 

 best efiect, should never be cut less than four and a half feet 

 deep, always if practicable in the steepest ascent of the land, 

 and not more than 36 or 40 feet apart. - For thus differing 

 with the practice of so distinguished an agriculturist as Mr. 

 Dodge, the committee feel that they should give a reason. It 

 is well known that evaporation produces cold ; how much the 

 evaporation of one pound of water of drainage, from one hun- 

 dred pounds of soil, will reduce its temperature, the committee 

 cannot say ; there are scientific reasons to show that it cannot 

 be less than 10 degrees. This cold is the principal cause of 



