101 



ments, and any attempt to introduce that of a more complicated 

 nature will of course be unsuccessful." 



Col. Taylor thus describes a canal drain : " A ditch cut at 

 least four "feet deep, gradually narrower from the top to the bot- 

 tom, where it is not above eight inches wide. A row of poles is 

 laid on each side of the ditch at the bottom, of such a size as to 

 nearly touch, but not quite. Green or seasoned brush without 

 leaves, are trimmed to lie close, are packed into the ditch with the 

 small ends downwards, touching the poles, beginning at the upper 

 end of the ditch. The inclination of the bush must be up stream, 

 at an angle of about forty-five degrees wiih the bottom of the ditch, 

 packing as close as possible with the hands, the brush being cut 

 proper lengths, so as to fill the ditch within ten inches of the sur- 

 face or top. The brush are then covered with four inches of leaves 

 and the whole covered with earth, rammed down. This will press 

 down the leaves, so as to admit any species of culture without dis- 

 turbing them. The excess of water will trickle through the aper- 

 tures, caused by having its small ends at bottom, and by the poles 

 down to the main or open drain, and the soured land be relieved 

 of its excess of moisture." 



This mode of draining, in the Colonel's estimation, " would con- 

 tinue a hundred years. Where stone can be had, this way of 

 draining will last forever." " But" the Col. concludes, " this is 

 like shooting speculation, a century beyond hope." 



Enough has now been seen of the past to show that draining, 

 whether applied to swamps or arable lands, is no new notion or 

 discovery either in England or the United States. When, there- 

 fore, it is asserted, as it now is, that draining is the first great re- 

 quisite in good farming, it is but the plain statement of a fact which 

 cannot be successfully contradicted, because it has the confirma- 

 tion of both experience and observation for more centuries than are 

 indicated in this essay. 



The arts of drainage and irrigation, are, undoubtedly, nearly as 

 ancient as the art of agriculture ; for there are few localities where 

 one or the other, if not both, are essential to the husbandman and the 

 gardener. The race of 8t)anish Arabs have the honor of introducing 

 the art of irrigation into Euiope, and thus rendei'ing districts fer- 

 tile and productive that before were barren. While the South of 

 Europe previously suffered for want of water to moisten its parched 

 surfiice, in the North the soil suffered with an excess of moisture ; 

 hence irrigation for the South and drainage for the North. 



In reclaiming the earth to man's use, the first olijccts of his la- 

 bor are the destruction of noxious and mischievous animals, the 

 levelling of forests, the construction of habitations and the draining 

 of morasses. This is the mission of the pioneer. The generations 

 that follow have other and more important improvements to make, 

 as the soil is annually impoverished by cropping. 



