HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 79 



DEVELOPMENT OF UNDER-DRAINAGE 



In the practice of modern under-drainage by means 

 of tile, New York was a pioneer. Drainage as an art 

 accomplished by the use of open ditches and of stone, 

 brush, poles, and other crude means is very old and 

 is recorded by Cato and other ancient writers. But 

 drainage by means of tile or short lengths of clay 

 pipes is relatively new and probably does not date 

 back more than 250 years to the convent gardens in 

 Mauberg, France. In England it is not much over 

 150 years old. 



The honor of having first systematically tile- 

 drained a farm in America rests with John Johnston, 

 a Scotchman j who came to America in 1821 and ac- 

 quired a farm two miles southeast of Geneva, on the 

 east shore of Seneca Lake. His farm is in part a 

 strong heavy calcareous loam and in part a rather 

 heavy calcareous clay. For the first fifteen years, 

 however, he could not grow profitable crops. Then he 

 remembered the " pottery " he had seen buried in the 

 land of his native country. In 1835-1837, he im- 

 ported some of these clay pipes from England and be- 

 gan the systematic drainage of his farm about four 

 rods apart. He found it so profitable that he con- 

 tinued until his entire three hundred acres were all 

 well drained in this manner. Others followed his 

 example and a period of active tile under-drainage 

 began. Johnston was associated with John Delafield 

 in importing the first machine for making tile, a 

 Scragg pattern. In 1851, Johnston was awarded a 



