( 75 ) 



Northern land owner does not hesitate to spend fifty or seventy-five 

 dollars on a single acre, when he can bring into cultivation a choice 

 piece of bottom. But the Hollanders surpass every other people 

 on earth in this particular. Nearly every foot of land they own 

 has been reclaimed from the sea by a system of dykes, levees and 

 ditches. Their lands being lower than the water courses that run 

 through them, their only resource is to lift the watters that are col- 

 lected in the ditches by means of steam pumps. This is done, it is 

 true, at the expense of the public, but the farmers pay an annual 

 tax to keep it up, or they would soon be flooded by the accumula- 

 ting waters that penetrate the soil from every side. 



There are. many methods of draining land, but we will confine 

 ourselves to the method of doing it as effectually as the Dutch, but 

 at such an expense that even a renter can afford it, for the increase 

 of one year's crop. A German gardner of New York leased ten 

 acres of land that proved to be boggy, and the first three years his 

 crops, in spite of all the attention he could give them, barely paid 

 rent and support him. He was advised to try draining, and al- 

 though but seven years were left of his lease, he did it at a cost of 

 $500. The result fully justified the expense, for in the remaining 

 seven years he made, over and above all expenses, money enough 

 to pay $12,000 for the farm he had drained. No land can produce 

 well without the aid of heat and proper aeration. If the soil is 

 full of water it will be impervious to the air, and the water will 

 also counteract the effects of the sun's rays, and the ground will be 

 cold and lifeless. Without the influence of heat and air, necessary 

 chemical changes in the constituents of the soil cannot take place, 

 consequently the roots fail to find the nourishment they are seeking 

 they fail to penetrate the soil to a sufficient depth, and instead 

 of a rich subsoil, there will only be surface soil to support vegeta- 

 tion. That soon becomes exhausted, and the land appears worn 

 out. Draining opens up a mine of fertilizers below, the roots run 

 quickly down to it, and there is no question that the crops are 

 greatly increased. There is much land in our State that would be 

 greatly improved by draining. The soils that will be improved 

 can be ascertained, during the wet season, by digging a hole in the 

 fields and watching the height to which the water rises. In many 

 places it will remain almost on a level nearly all winter ; in others 

 showing itself one, two or three feet below it. And this, too, on 



