PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 231 



treatment of the land as well as for the vines. It is very essential to have 

 g'ood healthy vines for planting any vineyard. The most failures have been 

 made in consequence of planting inferior vines. Many good varieties of 

 grapes have been condemned and called humbugs, by reason of nothing 

 but inferior steam plants having been planted. Many of these new kinds 

 have been sold at enormous prices, and have given nothing but dissatisfac- 

 tion to all buyers." 



UnDERDRAINS, WHERE THERE ARE NO StONES OR TiLES. 



Mr. Wm. K. Griffin, Equality, 111., gives his experience in underdraining, 

 which maybe valuable to many other persons similarly situated. He saj's: 

 "ily wet land has a clay subsoil; there is no stone near bj^; the nearest 

 saw-mill is five miles away, is run by steam, and never sells lumber for less 

 than one dollar per hundred in gold; and there is no tile manufactory in 

 these parts. I found that open ditches filled up from frost and overflow; 

 besides, they were in the way of team and plow. About three j'eai-s ago 

 after several experiments, I adopted the following plan for underdrains, 

 which lias proved highly satisfactory thus far. When the ground is satu- 

 rated with water, I dig a ditch three spades deep, and thirteen inches wide 

 at the bottom. In the bottom of this primary ditch I dig a subditch eight 

 or nine inches wide at the top, six or seven inches deep; the sides sloping 

 so as to meet at the bottom. I prepare a material for covering the sub- 

 ditch, by cutting a tree of some durable and free splitting timber, sawing 

 it into sections thii'teen inches long, removing the bark, dividing each sec- 

 tion into eights by means of the wedge, aiid continuing the division as 

 long as practicable with the froe The pieces thus obtained are from i to 

 ^ of an inch in thickness at the bark edge, and of course much thinner at 

 the heart edge. They are placed over the subditch, the thick edge of each 

 lapping a little over the thin edge of the piece preceding. The ditch is 

 then filled, 



" The discharge of water iuto the drain is greatly facilitated by the 

 action of crawfish, which perforate our wet.lands here in every direction. 

 I found that my first ditch drained the surface pretty effectually for four 

 rods on each side, so I constructed my drains about eight rods apart. 

 The project works like a charm, greatly to the surprise of my neighbors, 

 very few of whom had ever heard of underdraining before. After long 

 rains I have seen some of my drained land six inches under water, and in 

 twenty-four hours after dryer than tlie hillsides. Situated as I am, the 

 cost of the above described covering for the subditch is less than one-fourth 

 that of sawed boards a foot wide. I think that two men, familiar w^ith the 

 use of the saw and froe, could, in free timber, get out enough for sixty rods 

 per day. The size of log that works to the best advantage is that, the 

 semi-diameter of which is about equal to the length of the froe. 



" Can any one tell by experience whether tliese subterranean passages 

 will remain after the covering shall have rotted away? My theory is that 

 they will; but I should like to know what has been the experience of 

 others." 



Mr. P. T. Quinn. — The difiScuity with the plan is that the wood decays so 

 soon, and then, I think, the drain will clog and cease to operate. 1 have 



