No. 129.J 185 



recommend it as an improvement for its cheapness', but if unne- 

 cessary, as many contend, it would be dear at any price to Ameri- 

 can farmers. 



To recapitulate the substance of what we have said, we do not 

 think underdraining ought to he recommended to the adoption of 

 our American farmers. First, because our climate does not 

 require it, it is not so moist and wet as the climate of Gt. Britain 

 by considerable, even if we have as much rain to fall on some 

 sections of our country as they have on some of theirs, take the 

 average of the whole of the two countiies, take any month in the 

 year, or the whole year. Second, we have a far more powerful 

 hot sun here, than they have there, from May to November, this 

 exhales the moisture from the earth rapidly, and dries it some 

 distance beneath the surface, and there is very little surplus 

 water, comparatively, to be conveyed away by artificial means, 

 either from the surface or underneath it. Third, there is more 

 sand in our soil generally, than exists in the British soil, this is 

 of a drier and hotter nature than clay, and aids the sun materi- 

 ally, in the process of drying and evaporation. Fourth, the 

 great expense of underdrains, labor is more than three times as 

 high here as it is in Gt. Britain, and our farmers will not under- 

 take an improvement that costs so much to do it well, and whose 

 necessity at all, is a serious question. Besides if it is necessary, 

 and they are to be benefited by it, that benefit, it is pretty cer- 

 tain, will not meet the expense at the present price of their 

 products, and what they have been for several years, and what 

 they are likely to be. Fifth, when from the whole operation 

 exclusive of gain therefrom, it may with all the pains and ex- 

 pense bestowed, be executed so imperfectly as to make it an equal 

 chance that such an injury may be done to their land, without 

 any advantage, as to occcasion serious embarrassment and perhaps 

 total ruin. Sixth, from the habits of an independent American 

 farmer, acquired partly from the free government under which 

 he lives, and being his own landlord, and partly from his asso- 

 ciates around him all of the same class, that he will not have 

 these broken in upon, and persuaded suddenly to adopt any new 

 project or experiment, whether it be productive of good or ill. 

 He must, and will take his own time for it, if on reflection he 



