(90) 



comes sour and, though full of fertility, it is unavailable to 

 the plant. With wet soil, it is impossible to put the land 

 in a proper state of tilth. So all things point to the neces- 

 sity of drainage. 



It may be proper to state that every piece of ground on 

 which water will stand two hours after a rain, will be bene- 

 fitted by a system of drainage. This seems to the South- 

 erner to be such a stupendous undertaking that nearly 

 every one is discouraged from making the effort. When it 

 is supposed that draining can only be effected by ditching 

 in every direction, and laying great stretches of pipes, the 

 undertaking does seem indeed to be very costly. 



The method of pipe-laying is the best, and as our farmers 

 see the good effects of a cheaper method, they will gradu- 

 ally, and by slow degrees, come to practice the more sub- 

 stantial methods. A Northern land owner does not hesi- 

 tate 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 waters that are collected 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 accumulating 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 

 gardener of New York leased ten acre? 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 

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



