Proceedings of the Farmers* Club. 757 



shallowness. There is no wisdom in going deep. I am opposed to 

 disturbing with drains or with plowshares that cool, firm subsoil that 

 never smelled air, never saw the light, never basked in the sun. I 

 advise this man not to drain at all. It will cost him fifty dollars per 

 acre, and I don't think it will prove profitable. If he has none but 

 land that needs draining, wlij he had better seek a home elsewhere.- 



Mr. P. T, Qninn. — And I, a practical farmer, and not a sidewalk 

 theorizer, advise this man to drain by all means, commencing in a 

 small way, witli half an acre, and I venture to predict if he does this 

 much the present year, that next year he will wish to extend the good 

 work over two or three acres, and so on until his farm is entirely 

 reclaimed. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman. — The father of upland draining in this country 

 is John Johnson, of Geneva, N. Y. In a conversation witli that vete- 

 ran agriculturist, he told me the other day that his uniform advice to 

 farmers asking it is to dig one ditch and lay down the usual horseshoe 

 drain. He has had eminent success with it, and does not want a 

 better material. A drain is a receptacle for water as well as a conduit 

 for carrying it. The concrete is used with success in room of pump 

 logs or of lead tubing, but not as a substitute for the usual drain tile. 

 As to the distance apart and other practical questions, Mr. Johnson 

 recommends one trial drain. That will settle more questions than 

 any book or paper on the subject. As to abandoning a soil because 

 it needs draining, as has been suggested, Mr. Johnson says that no 

 soil is really good for wheat that is not stiff enough to be benefited 

 by draining. Mr, Pearce had better unite with three or four of his 

 neighboi's and buy a tile machine, and if their clay is free of stones 

 they might also get a ditching machine. But I would not recommend 

 this, outlay till he and those who join him have demonstrated that 

 their surface is greatly benefited by drains. It will not pay for them 

 to import their drain-tile from any distance, and Virginia needs local 

 working artisans. Ships have been slowly working her downfall for 

 200 years ; but drain-tile and manure, stock, and diversified industry, 

 will build her up again. 



Saving Manure. 

 Mr. ISTathan Whitten, Etna, Me. — " As the chief and all-import- 

 ant subject for fiirmers is manure, I propose to give my mode of 

 operation in winter. I keep, the present winter, eleven head of 

 neat stock and two horses. The droppings of the stock are thrown 



