FEBRUARY 



On the farm. During this month we shall have a 

 variety of interests and plenty of work to engage our 

 attention on the farm. There are fences to repair and 

 build, hotbeds to prepare, tile ditches to dig, spring 

 orders to make, and live stock to feed and care for. No 

 one great work is to claim our time, but many different 

 plans and preparations are to be made. 



LESSON XLIX 



DRAINAGE 



Plan for draining our forty acres. A period of open 

 weather has come, the ground has thawed out, and we 

 have seen that fields numbers 1 and 2 of our farm need 

 drainage. If the ground is dry enough to work in, we 

 shall run two ditches, each forty rods long, across the 

 centers of fields numbers 1 and 2, and connect each with 

 Spring Hollow. We shall use five-inch tiles, twelve 

 inches long, and they will cost us 5c each. We should 

 have a bookkeeping account of our year on the farm, 

 and record the expense of our tile drainage. 



Values of drainage. Removes the excess of surface 

 water. Plants cannot grow without air, and much water 

 in the soil keeps out the air. The level of the under- 

 ground water must be below the depth to which the roots 



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