1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



i71 



its branches are cut, the wound will rarely bleed. 

 The returning sap, we suppose, soon forms a 

 green, healthy ring about the cut, in the bark, 

 and the remainder of the cut dries and shrinks 

 before the sap is again in motion. This sea- 

 son of rest, then, of three or more weeks, is 

 the best time to prune. It has its inconven- 

 iences, we are aware, but they are of less con- 

 sequence than the injury of the tree. 



No harm comes to the tree, we believe, if 

 pruned in the autumn, soon after the leaves 

 have fallen. The tree is then, also, in a com- 

 parative state of rest and may be cut judi- 

 ciously without injuring it. 



For the Xew England Farmer, 

 DRAINAGE IN ENGLAND. 



As the climate and some other circumstances 

 that affect the farmer are different in this 

 country from those of England, and as man)' 

 Americans are prejudiced and set against 

 British or Scotch modes of farming, I feel 

 somewhat reluctant in commending any of 

 their practices. But having had considerable 

 to do with draining land in England myself, 

 and having seen much of the operations of 

 others there in the same line, I beg to give a 

 few instances to illustrate the mode adopted 

 tlftre, the material used and the effect pro- 

 duced. In doing so, I may repeat some facts 

 and particulars stated in an article I wrote 

 some time ago for the Prairie Farmer of this 

 State. 



1st. The Right Honorable Lord Forrester 

 in Shropshire, England, had several hundred 

 acres of cold, wet, clay land under the plough. 

 The grain was poor, late in maturing, and 

 not an average crop, compared with other 

 land on the estate. On sinking the drains the 

 clay was found to be so cold and wet that it 

 was decided to drain from four to five feet 

 deep. 



Some laughed and others ridiculed the idea 

 of putting in a drain Ove feet deep, and said 

 through such a stiff clay, the water would never 

 find the drain. Scores of men were put to 

 work, and the land was drained with two and 

 a half inch pipe (not tile) the drains being 

 fourteen feet apart. The land gently fell to 

 the west. At the mouth of each drain outlet 

 was a little iron door fixed to the pipe by a 

 spring pushed into the pipe, the door being on 

 an easy plajing hinge, so that if only a little 

 water came out it was sufficient to force open 

 the little door to admit of its flowing. The 

 more water the wider the door was forced 

 open, which opened and shut itself. Those 

 doors were to prevent rats and moles from 

 getting into the drain. 



That effectually drained the land and made 

 it some of the best wheat producing soils on 

 the whole estate. For any person to take out, 



or steal, or break one of those little spring 

 doors, was in the eye of the law, felony, and 

 on conviction, the offender was sentenced to 

 not less than three months hard labor on "The 

 Tread Mill." up to seven years transportation ; 

 that kind of property coming under the head 

 of "unprotected property." 



Another gentleman had a deal of useless 

 land, which grew little else but rushes, the 

 water lying on the surface for months in the 

 year. That land was drained with one and a 

 quarter inch pipes laid three feet deep, and 

 the rows twelve feet apart. After it was 

 drained it was deeply ploughed in the fall, let 

 lie till spring, then cross ploughed, sowed 

 with red clover and rye grass, let grow till 

 next year, and when the clover was in full 

 blossom it was ploughed in the contrary way, 

 just deep enough to cover the grass and clover, 

 and in October sown with winter wheat. The 

 rushes soon entirely disappeared and the whole 

 field was transformed into some of the best 

 land on that estate. 



All drainage used to be done with tile ; a 

 flat tile placed in the bottom and then a four, 

 five or six inch drain tile placed on the top of 

 the flat one ; but it was soon found that in 

 filling in the drain it frequently got broken or 

 cracked, which in time fell in and then stopped 

 up the drain. 



Pipes were then invented from one to six 

 inches in the bore, which were not easily 

 broken by any pressure, being quite round, 

 and if a rat or mole got into the drain he had 

 no other alternative but to back out. 



The pipes of one inch bore are nine inches 

 long, others of larger dimensions, ten to twelve 

 inches long, and sold by the thousand not by 

 the foot. 



Another instance was near the town I came 

 from, — about one hundred acres of grass land 

 which could at will be floated by the town 

 sewer or brook. Surface drains or gutters 

 were dug a spade's width, about six or eight 

 inches deep, in different parts about the land, 

 and the town filth turned on, and in a few 

 hours the whole field would be inundated. It 

 would be left inundated two or three days, 

 when the bolt would be dropped and the 

 water turned off. After a few years it was 

 found the land became too rich, the grass so 

 strong that while growing and looking well on 

 the top, it was rotting in the bottom — and it 

 was found necessary to underdrain. It was too 

 rank for hay, and so it was always grazed by 

 milking cows or fat cattle. The under drains 

 were buried only about eighteen inches, and 

 was drained with one and one-half inch pipe. 

 Let the summer be ever so hot and dry there 

 was always grass in those fields. 



JOIIX WitATMORE. 



Bridgenorth Farm, Dunleith, 111., 1870. 



—Mr. M. L. Sullivant, of Burr Oaks, Ford Co., 

 111., has this year planted 6,500 acres of land to 

 corn. 



