258 [Assembly 



wet lands, shallowed, the roots deluged with water cannot find and 

 take up mucilage and sugar as in properly pulverized soils. I 

 would say so of my grape vines. Much water makes poor grapes 

 and poor wine. When the moisture is right, the saline consti- 

 tuents of manure give a deliglitful character and flavor to wine j 

 this is due to the mineral elements. 'The roots will not do well 

 in an undue proportion of water ; blasting of the fruit is very 

 apt to follow. Apples loose flavor. What a taste has the pine 

 apple 1 What a flavor a pippin apple would have if grown un- 

 der like circumstances '? You would not be able to tell by taste 

 what it was 1 Hay, grain, and all feed grown in too much wet 

 show the defects in your milk and in the butter. They fail for 

 the lack of activity, nourishment and high flavor of the feed. 

 The necessary amount of the saccharine matter is not in it. You 

 will find this proved in all the grapes, clovers and fruits. A 

 load of hay can easily be grown worth as much as two loads of 

 another crop. 



It is now important that drain tiles should be made cheap as 

 well as good. I am convinced of the great importance of their 

 use, especially in all dense soils, and those are plenty. On high 

 as well as on low lands deep tillage and under-draining can be, 

 in great numbers of farms profitably used. The American In- 

 stitute should offer such premiums for drain tiles as would lead 

 to their extended manufacture and so lead to great improvements 

 in our agriculture. 



Professor Mapes. — There are a few exact points here settled. 

 It was once thought that only very wet or very compact soils re- 

 quired draining. Now it is thought that even sandy lands are 

 profited by it. Daniel Ellis, of Freehold, N. J., and John Black, 

 of Burlington, N. J., have sub-soiled their sandy lands I They 

 found that contrary to usual experience their corn blades did not 

 roll when the summer's drought came on, and that in an unsuita- 

 ble season for corn, the sub-soiled sand fields gave fair crops ! 

 There is no such thing now as had luck in farming; there is too 

 much good sound sense and science brought to bear on this subject 

 to admit any longer the had luck system to stand. We have tried 

 the benefit of clover turned in as a fertilizer ; but Indian corn 



