1871. 



NEW ENGLAND YARl' 



,lEl(. 



539 



They were discussed in the woods while felling 

 the forest, in the taverns, the stores, the 

 blacksmith shop, over the laji-stone, and in 

 the grist and lumber mill, whenever their 

 noise would permit. A good work has been 

 conmienced. We trust it may be continued. 

 There is plenty of good land in the State 

 which is available for cultivation. Let that 

 be improved to its highest extent, and num- 

 berless acres which are now under partial and 

 unprofitable culture, grow up to timber, to 

 keep in motion the thousand wheels which the 

 swift streams of the State will impel. 



F'or the New England Farmer, 

 DKAIlSrAGE OF DRY LANDS. 



Not having personally seen the land on Ex- 

 Governor Snj}th's estate at Manchester, the 

 profitable incidental drainage of which I men- 

 tioned in a former communication, and to 

 which, I presume, your correspondent, J. L. 

 Hubbard, alludes in your issue of July 15, I 

 cannot say to what extent the draining im- 

 provement has operated ; but my practical ex- 

 perience enables me to show Mr. Hubbard 

 that the principle of draining dry lands — with- 

 out carrying through the drains the moisture 

 from adjoining wet or swampy places — is a 

 good and a profitable one. 1 suppose satis- 

 faction on thi^j score to be his object. 



When I was not "A Fireside Farmer," and 

 when I had to pay at least as much annual 

 rent per acre for land as it can be bought for 

 in many good farming towns in New England, 

 the rage for drainage began to possess the 

 minds of land-owners, and leases were gener- 

 ally drawn making it incumbent on farmers to 

 periodically drain stipulated portions of their 

 holdings until the whole should undergo that 

 improvement. I was of the number so bound, 

 and was as skeptical concerning this incum- 

 bency, in the matter of what was considered 

 dry soil, as the most obdurate non-improver 

 could wish. My landlord furnished tiles and 

 I had to furnish labor, and draining 1 eing 

 "in the bond" it had to be done. Hundreds 

 of the most intelligent farmers similarly situ- 

 ated as I was, and whose sage practice and 

 experiences were more valuably suggestive 

 than mine, denounced the drainage of dry 

 land as a sheer absurdity — a throwing away of 

 money and material — an imposition on com- 

 mon-sense judgment — a folly which had no 

 justifying feature. The practical testimony 

 of Mr. Smith, of Deanston, one of the fathers 

 of the improved drainage system in Great 

 Britain — of many others who had followed and 

 proved his theory that light lands demanded 

 drainage in order to be profitable — and the 

 demonstrations in its favor by Prof. J. W. F. 

 Johnson, of Edinburg College, the famous 

 writer on Agricultural Chemistry, were of no 



account with us. We knew better ; of course 

 we did. If growlings could have encompassed 

 our drainage it would have easily been done ; 

 but we had to go at it with ploughs and spades, 

 and it was performed by dint of^ their diligent 

 use. and very grudgingly. 



Now for consequences, for in them was to be 

 found proof of our wisdom and the great folly 

 of those who opposed us. I had two fields, 

 one falling to the west from a narrow ridge, 

 and including eleven acres ; the other more 

 slightly sloping to the east from the same 

 ridge, and containing eight acres. Both were 

 naturally drained ; that is to say, the fall from 

 the ridge on the west to the bottom of the 

 field was twenty-six feet, and that on the east 

 seventeen feet. Very superior facilities 

 were afforded by the former for the washing 

 out and away of the manures in the soil during 

 heavy rains ; the privilege in this respect 

 on the east side was not exactly so de- 

 sirable. The soil, in both instances, was a 

 light, loamy clay, very gritty, and on the west 

 side, more than half way down the field, al- 

 most what would be called gravel bed. Bar- 

 ley had always been the best crop grown upon 

 it, the reason for which see the books of Agri- 

 cultural Chemists, and "when seen make a 

 note on't" as Cap'n Cuttle says. About half 

 a dozen rods on the lower part of the west 

 field the land was level, and ran along a high- 

 way. The soil here was deep and without 

 grit. It was the best spot for weeds and 

 aquatic grasses that could be found ; and also 

 grew excellent turnips, although the labor of 

 keeping the weeds down made the crops 

 hardly so profitable as they might have been. 

 It was just such a spot as would, I believe, 

 have charmed your correspondent, "C. E. 

 K.," to whom I will pay my grateful respects 

 anon. 



This west field was drained in the fall, 

 ploughed and winter fallowed. It was cross- 

 ploughed next spring and planted to potatoes, 

 which gave an excellent crop. The season 

 was an average one, but the yield was very 

 superior to what it had ever been known be- 

 fore. The manure used was a mixture from 

 the stable and cow-house for the higher part 

 of the field, and on the lower portion ashes 

 from the yards in a neighboring village. 



The second year the land was ploughed and 

 sown to oats. The season was an ordinary 

 one. I had a fine crop — three hundred bush- 

 els more than had ever been raised on the same 

 land. 



I was bound to a four course rotation — 

 green crop, — oats, barley or wheat — hay and 

 clover, and pasture. Another occupation took 

 me from the farm after the hay crop of the 

 third year was harvested (and it was a supe- 

 rior one, although the spring had been a very 

 dry and unfavorable one for grass.) I did 

 not weigh it, and can only speak by the rule 

 of comparative bulk. 



Co-incident success showed itself in the ex- 



