80 RURAL ZVEW YORK 



prize by the New York State Agricultural Society 

 for an essay on his drainage operations, and in the 

 following year a set of exquisite gold and silver pieces 

 was presented to him in recognition of his service 

 to agriculture in introducing tile drainage, by a group 

 of public spirited men, among whom are a number 

 of prominent names. Whether the Johnston farm 

 was actually the first in America on which clay tile 

 were used is an open question. South of the Mason- 

 Dixon line, tile were not systematically laid until 

 about 1875 and this was at Charleston, South Caro- 

 lina. W. C. Hinson, a planter on James Island, 

 then began using tile. It is reported that one of the 

 English consuls stationed at a Virginia port used tile 

 long before that date. In any event, Johnston's was 

 the first work the results of which have been carried 

 through to the present day, for those drains are still 

 operating and in good form and the farm, under the 

 progressive management of the present owner, con- 

 tinues to produce yields of crops far above the aver- 

 age of the State. 



The first sections of farm drain tile carried west 

 of the Mississippi Eiver came from this same vi- 

 cinity of Geneva. They were carried by another man 

 who has had very large influence on agriculture in 

 New York and also in the country at large. Isaac 

 Phillips Roberts, first dean of agriculture in Cornell 

 University, was born on a farm at East Varick on the 

 west shore of Cayuga Lake. He moved to Iowa and 

 engaged in farming. In 1865 he carried some lengths 

 of tile back to Iowa in connection with a visit at his 



