66 Success with Small Fruits. 



To the upper and further end of the canal (G), I constructed another 

 and cheaper style of drain. In the bottom of this ditch (H), two stones 

 were placed on their ends or edges and leaned together so as to form a 

 kind of arch, and then other stones were thrown over and around them 

 until they reached a point eighteen inches from the surface. Over these 

 stones, as over the box-drains also, was placed a covering of any coarse 

 litter to keep the earth from washing down ; and then the construction 

 of one or two short side-drains, the refilling the ditches and leveling the 

 ground completed my task. 



It will be remembered that this entire system of drainage ended in 

 the excavation (B) already described. The question was now whether 

 such a theory of drainage would " hold water." If it would, the hole I 

 had dug must not, and I waited to see. It promised well. Quite a 

 steady stream poured into it and disappeared. By and by there came a 

 heavy March storm. When I went out in the morning, everything was 

 afloat. The big canal and the well at its lower end were full to over- 

 flowing. The stubborn acre was a quagmire, and alas ! the excavation 

 which I had hoped would save so much trouble and expense was also full. 

 I plodded back under my umbrella with a brow as lowering as the sky. 

 There seemed nothing for it but to cut a " Dutch gap " that would make 

 a like chasm in my bank account. By noon it cleared off, and I went 

 down to take a melancholy survey of the huge amount of work that now 

 seemed necessary, when, to my great joy, the oblong cut, in which so 

 many hopes had seemingly been swamped, was entirely empty. From 

 the box-drain a large stream poured into it and went down to China, for 

 all that I knew. I went in haste to the big canal and found it empty, and 

 the well lowered to the mouth of the drain. The stubborn acre was now 

 under my thumb, and I have kept it there ever since. During the past 

 summer, I had upon its wettest and stiffest portion two beds of Jucunda 

 strawberries that yielded at the rate of one hundred and ninety bushels to 

 the acre. The Jucunda strawberry is especially adapted to heavy land 

 requiring drainage, and I think an enterprising man in the vicinity of 

 New- York might so unite them as to make a fortune. The hole was 

 filled with stones and now forms a part of my garden, and the canal 

 answers for a road-bed as at first intended. In the fortuitous well I have 

 placed a force-pump, around which are grown and watered my potted 

 plants. The theory of carrying drains into gravel does hold water, and 

 sometimes holes can be dug at a slight expense, that practically have no 

 bottom. I have no doubt that in this instance tile would have been 

 better and cheaper than the small stone drains that I have described. 



