FARMS. 107 



able amount of manure, it will produce three tons of hay to 

 the acre. Ilowever this may be, Mr. Perkins does not regret 

 the expense, as the labor of supervision has been very condu- 

 cive to health, and an offensive swamp has been changed into a 

 fruitful field. 



The subject of draining, it seems to me, is not attracting 

 that degree of attention which might be expected from intelli- 

 gent farmers who have much land that is filled with cold, stag- 

 nant water, so destructive to all cultivated crops. Thousands 

 of acres of the very best land in the county, now producing 

 little but fresh hay, might, by draining alone, be reclaimed and 

 made fertile. 



The only improvement by draining with which I am particu- 

 larly acquainted, has been made by Mr. Thomas 0. Jackson, of 

 Plymouth. 



The soil of Mr. Jackson's farm is, for the most part, a heavy 

 clay ; and about two acres on a hill-side were found to be so wet 

 late in the spring, that the season was not long enough for the 

 successful cultivation of any crop. In summer the surface was 

 hard, dry, and full of cracks. The subsoil is a clay pan, so 

 hard that it had to be broken with a pick before it could be 

 shovelled. A main drain, five hundred feet in length, of five- 

 inch tile, was laid at the depth of four feet, witli a fall of 

 several feet down a hill-side. This drain was joined to a con- 

 ductor, which leads into a pond. Lateral drains, one hundred 

 feet in length, of three-inch tiles, intersected the main drain, 

 which runs through the middle of the lot. These laterals were 

 thirty-three feet apart, and on both sides of the main drain. 

 The tiles were laid on the hard pan at the /bottom of the 

 trenches. The tiles were laid so as to touch each other, and 

 then firmly wedged with stones, upon which a covering of small 

 stones six inches deep, was placed, succeeded by a layer of 

 large stones. Another covering of seaweed prepared the 

 trenches for the earth which completed the drain. To exclude 

 vermin, a copper strainer was placed at each end of the main, 

 and a stone at the beginning of each lateral. The amount of 

 land so drained was two acres. 



The cost, which was greatly enhanced by the hardness of the 

 clay pan, was nearly seventy dollars per acre. This expense is 



