198 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



mice and moles to stone drains. He said he 

 would not drain a piece of land not having more 

 than 3 inches fall in 100 feet with stone, unless 

 he had the dimension stone, and laid it at least 4 

 feet deep ; but he would rather pay $12 to $14 

 per 1000 for tiles, and he could show by figures, 

 that excavating for stone draining would cost as 

 mucli as $10 per 1000 for tiles. He spoke of Mr. 

 Wm. Connors, of Exeter, as being the first to drain 

 with tiles in New Hampshire, the first tiles costing 

 him $25 per 1000, on his farm. He uses them 

 now, and considers even his pasture land pays for 

 draining ; indeed so general had the use of tiles 

 become in that section, that a manufactory had 

 been established in Exeter. The speaker said he 

 had a piece of land that he drained with tile, and 

 although he land was worthless before, from wet 

 springs, he now raised the largest crops he 

 had ever seen from it, and these were six 

 weeks earlier than on undrained land. He had 

 found that on thorough drained land, after the 

 frost is out of the ground, ypu can always go to 

 work and plow. 



Richard S. Fay, of Lynn, said he thought 

 that even the system of drainage in Europe was 

 in danger of being carried too far, and that par- 

 ties were losing money by draining lands which 

 never needed it, as it had become to be thought 

 a panacea for everything. One-half of his farm 

 was so dry he could not get water enough on it, 

 and the other half was so wet he could not get 

 the water off of it. He spoke of the advantage 

 of air in the ground for the growth of plants and 

 herbs, saying that too much moisture tended to 

 check the growth and destroy vegetation. 



Mr. Hall, of Medford, had always been a far- 

 mer, and thought under-draining was at the bot- 

 tom of all good farming. He had drained twenty 

 acres of low, wet clay land within six or seven 

 years, he finding the tiles and his tenant putting 

 them in, and the effect on two and a half acres of 

 this was that he considered it paid the expense 

 the first year. He had taken up stone drains on 

 land where a canoe would float, and put in tile 

 drain, and now he had a very good growth of 

 dwarf pears on the land, while the water he got 

 from the land he pumped up by a hydraulic ram 

 for use in his house, barn and out-buildings, and 

 this, he thought, amply compensated for the cost 

 of draining. 



The Chairman explained the difficulty the peo- 

 ple of Massachusetts and New Hampshire la- 

 bored under, in comparison with England, in the 

 laws relating to flowage. 



Mr. SilEDD, of Boston, being called on, said 

 that as an agricultural engineer he had drained a 

 lot of land in Milton where there were only two 

 inches of fall to the quarter mile and the drain 

 worked well. If there is a fall of three inches to 



the hundred feet in land, a tile drain of two 

 inches, with drains forty feet apart, four feet 

 deep, would take off all the water, and he would 

 guai-antee it would work satisfactorily. All soils 

 resting on a tenacious subsoil could be advan- 

 tageously drained. He spoke of several instances 

 of draining which had been particularly success- 

 ful, and said that one great advantage of drain- 

 ing was the forwarding of the ground for agricul- 

 tural purposes. 



The subject for discussion at the next meeting 

 having been announced as "Fruit and Fruit Cul- 

 ture,'" when Hon. Marshall P. Wilder is ex- 

 pected to preside, the meeting adjourned. 



EXTRACTS AND BEPLIES. 

 A MOWING MACHINE. 



I think of purchasing a mowing machine, and 

 if it be not in violation of your rules, please give 

 me a word of advice as to the kind What do 

 you think of Ketchum's improved, made at Mid- 

 dletown, Ct., and also of Wood's ? My meadows 

 are not perfectly smooth. 



Which is the best for all kinds of meadow — 

 the wheel or the hand horse-rakes ? 



Winchester Centre, 1861. H. FoRD. 



Remarks. — When mowing time comes, go 

 where mowing machines, of various kinds, are at 

 work and see and test them for yourself. Ten 

 dollars expended in this way will be an economi- 

 cal outlay. 



If your lands are quite rough, a hand horse- 

 rake will last longest on them, but it will kill you 

 a great deal sooner, than a wheel horse rake will. 

 So, as you value your own comfort and longevity, 

 choose between them ! 



A NEW seedling APPLE. 



I herewith enclose a sample of apples raised by 

 myself the past season, which, being seedhngs, 1 

 thought I would send a few to you, and would 

 like your opinion of them. I planted the seed in 

 1850, on light gravelly soil ; one tree, looking 

 very thrifty and growing faster than the rest, I 

 thought I would not graft it, but let it grow and 

 bear naturally ; it continued to grow very thrifty, 

 without any extra manuring, and bore two apples 

 in 1858. In 1859 it bore about a peck, and the 

 past season one and a half bushels ; the tree now 

 stands over fifteen feet high and has gone far 

 ahead of all my others on the same soil. The ap- 

 ples keep pretty well till February. One advan- 

 tage in them is being a great bearer and of good 

 size, the sample I send you being an average 

 size. I think by cultivation they would be wor- 

 thy of notice. Seedling. 



Bradford, N. E., 1861. 



Remarks. — Our opinion with regard to fruit 

 must be well known to our old readers. We are 

 decidedly of the opinion that none but the best 

 fruits should be cultivated. It costs no more to 

 raise and continue a good tree than to sustain a 



