156 WORCESTER SOCIETY. 



and the quantities of water discharged in equal times by drains 

 are nearly as the square root of their depth. While a three- 

 foot drain is discharging ly"oVo pounds of water, a drain four 

 feet deep will discharge 2 pounds, thus draining the land ear- 

 lier in the spring, and sooner after a rain. 



Drains should be cut in the steepest ascent of the land ; 

 when cut oblique to this line, the tendency of the water will 

 be to hang upon and gully out, and settle into, the lower side 

 of the drain, choking the conduit with soil, and imperfectly 

 draining the land. The only obstacle to water flowing into 

 drains is the friction of its particles with those of the soil ; to 

 overcome this a fall of about a quarter of an inch to a foot is 

 required; therefore, to place the water below the influence of 

 evaporation, and drain the land at the point intermediate be- 

 tween two drains four and a half feet deep, they should not be 

 cut on level land more than thirty-six or forty feet apart. Mr. 

 Dodge's drains being six and a half rods from each other, and 

 only three and a half feet deep, will not on level land drain it 

 at the intermediate point between any two of them more than 

 about twenty-eight inches deep. The water having to strug- 

 gle through the soil a distance of nearly fifty-four feet to get 

 into either drain, will require a fall of fourteen inches, which 

 taken from three and a half feet, leaves twenty-eight inches, 

 the depth to which the land would be drained at the interme- 

 diate points. The cold produced by the influence of evapora- 

 tion on water twenty-eight inches below the surface, will in a 

 few years kill out the better upland, and encourage the growth 

 of the sour, swaley, grass. 



The committee award to Mr. Dodge, for the best conducted 

 experiment on not less than two acres of upland, by under- 

 draining, the society's first premium of fifteen dollars, and for 

 the best conducted experiment, on not less than two acres of 

 upland, by irrigation, the society's second premium of ten dol- 

 lars. 



In closing, the committee congratulate the trustees on .the 

 advancement of agriculture in this county, since the organiza- 

 tion of this society. Farming is taking a stand among other 

 professions, which the importance of agriculture justly de- 

 mands. Clubs are formed in many towns, and are numer- 

 ously attended, practical and theoretical discussions take place 



