184 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



think is the best in the world ; a deep sandy loam 

 upon a heavy clay, say three feet under the sur- 

 face. Is it worth while to underdrain such land? 

 I make no excuse, my dear sir, for troubling you, 

 because I act upon the great rule of doing as I 

 would be done by ; and your position is such as, 

 in a measure, to justify inquiries. Should you be 

 able to answer this, be pleased to address me at 



, North Carolina. Relieve me, 



Most respectfully yours, 



North Carolina, Jan. 26, 1861. 



ANSWER. 



Boston, Mass., Feb. 16, 1861. 



My Dear Sir : — Your very acceptable letter 

 of the 26th ult. was received at Exeter, where I 

 was attending court, but where I do not now re- 

 side. Although I desired to reply forthwith to 

 your inquiries, and to show you that there were 

 no treacherous foes concealed in my "Greek gifts," 

 as in the Trojan horse, I have not had the time 

 in which to do it. 



As to secession, every letter I receive from the 

 South, and they are frequent, on the subject of 

 agricultural improvement, gives me a new feeling 

 of regret that we, who are united by so many 

 bonds of interest and fraternity, should so fool- 

 ishly cast away the blessings and the glory of our 

 great birthright, and sink ourselves into enemies 

 to each other, and our glorious country into in- 

 significant powers among the nations. Your 

 State has thus far done nobly, and I trust your 

 prophecy of future peace may be realized. 



You will not, I trust, deem it a breach of con- 

 fidence if I publish the greater part of your let- 

 ter, without your name, to show how, all through 

 the country, we find an interest in the subject of it. 



1. Your wood drains will operate perfectly so 

 long as they are unobstructed. On a clay bot- 

 tom they will probably not fill up, but if by the 

 working of moles or other animals, the surface 

 water should find passage down to them, they are 

 liable to be obstructed and ruined. I understand 

 you are on the Roanoke river, navigable far be- 

 yond you by canal. At Albany, N. Y., you can 

 contract for tiles, at say $10 per 1000, for two 

 inch, on board a schooner. The freight you can 

 estimate. I think you could get tiles from Alba- 

 ny, and lay them nearly as cheap as your wood 

 drains. The excavation will be less. The tiles 

 are indestructible, and their operation perfect. I 

 can suggest a better course than this, and that is 

 to make the tiles on your own estate. In Eng- 

 land this is often done, where large tracts are to 

 be drained. AVith New England "help" you 

 could readily do this, but whether your "African 

 fellow-creatures" are reliable enough for such new 

 enterprises, I do not know. I certainly would 

 use tiles if possible, in the inauguration of your 

 extensive operations. What you do, will then 

 be done for all time, whereas your wood conduits 



will be like the cathedral at Cologne, needing re- 

 pairs at one end, while the other is yet incom- 

 plete. Tiles are freighted to Boston by schoon- 

 ers, every season, from Albany, although we have 

 tile works in several places in the State. My 

 advice is, "Get tiles if possible, if not, use wood, 

 as better than not draining." I have no certain 

 information as to tile-making, beyond what my 

 "Farm Drainage" contains. A new kind of tile 

 made of cement and sand or gravel unburnt, is 

 made in Boston. Whether it will prove durable, 

 I dare not say. I have never yet known any clay 

 that would make good brick, fail on trial to make 

 good tiles, though the tile-makers will certainly 

 tell you that it requires some very peculiar clay, 

 such as you cannot find, to work into tiles. If 

 you have brick- yards near, you can get a machine 

 and have the tiles moulded, and burn them in the 

 kiln with bricks. I have seen this successfully 

 practiced, both in England and this country. 



2. If you run tile drains into your open ditch- 

 es, see that the latter are kept clean, so that the 

 tiles may not be obstructed. With this view, I 

 should let the open ditches be a foot deeper than 

 the tile drains. 



3, 4. What are called close clays differ very 

 much in consistency, and nothing but actual trial 

 will decide for you. I have never in this country 

 seen drains four feet deep fail to drain perfectly, 

 at any distance. I have laid them at 50 feet, and 

 they operate well. In England they are some- 

 times put as near together as 16 feet, but that is 

 in land which you and I should move away from, 

 as hopeless. Over tiles I should not put corn 

 "shucks," stones or gravel, but merely the surface 

 soil first — anything but puddled clay. Saw-dust 

 or straw over your wood drains will do well 

 enough. In laying drains from one open ditch 

 to another, I should divide the fall, laying the 

 drains highest in the middle, falling to each ditch 

 if the land is level. In your State, where frost 

 will not trouble you, I should in 100 yards dis- 

 tance make the drain three feet deep in the mid- 

 dle, and four feet at each end, giving a foot fall 

 in 50 yards. In large main drains, water will run 

 freely, if perfectly level, if there is fall in the lat- 

 erals which run into them ; for manifestly that 

 fall is so much head for forcing out the water in 

 the mains which lie lower. As to your sandy 

 loam of three feet on clay — such land is very 

 easily drained, by cutting a few inches into the 

 clay for the drains. Probably at 100 feet dis- 

 tance, drains would essentially relieve such land 

 of surplus water, and give you a warmer soil and 

 longer season. 



I have thus endeavored to reply to your inqui- 

 ries. In clay land, you will find increased effi- 

 ciency in your drains every year, the soil becom- 

 ing more and more open by the passage of wa- 



