r2 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



If vou should ask me whether tile drainage was a benefit to land, or 

 whether ft paid, I might, with eqnal propriety, ask yon whether the railroad 

 w^an improvement over the old wagon road, or whether the telegraph was an 

 ^movement, or whether the reaper, the mower the corn-planter and check- 

 rower were improvements on the old methods of doing work 



Tikdrainage converts nnprodnctive and unprofitable lands into productive 

 ^rnfiTabk lands It enables the farmer to raise large crops of corn on 

 llds P whet before drainage, were nearly or quite worthless for cultivat on. 

 ifenabts him to raise from 1* to 2/ 2 tons of choice timothy hay; when before 

 Lmage not more than % to 1 ton of inferior hay grew. It prepares land for 

 JroduTng tlO^O, *12.00 to $15.00 per acre, which, before drainage, would barely 



nTe^Vc^pSn^nieh the farmers of this portion of the West are 

 compelled to meet by the opening up of the vast country west of us, is con- 

 Ztly reducing the profits of farming. To meet this compeUtion, we mu 

 mtkeourlands more productive. We must drain and enrich them. We must 

 T^we? and unprofitable parts of our farms into dry and productive 



^^Where a 160-acre farm is now keeping 25 cows, it can and must be made to 

 keen 40 50 and even 60 cows. In this way only can our high-priced lands be 

 Made Profitable, and in this way only can we compete with the cultivators of 



C %Vobatly W fti S n o f one thing has this State made greater progress, during the 



last i?i y r a i^ 



and met with a very small sale, and were chiefly for draining cellars. In 1875, 

 there werT 24 factories in the State ; in 1880, 166 ; and in 1884, 536 ; producing 

 mmm I of tile, enough to lay 33,500 miles of drain, or enough to reach l/ 3 



n^t t e dtg be so many tile are yearly made, and yearly lai^on* - 

 tithe of the lands in this State have been tile-drained ; and I predict that dur 

 tog the next ten years, from 3 to 5 times as many tile will be laid as have been 



laid during the last ten years. ...... ,;i„ a „A the. 



About seven years ago, I made my first experiment in laying t le, and the 

 resufts I may say, far exceeded my expectation. It converted what was before 

 a ^very unprofltable and unsightly field, into what is now one of my riches and 

 mist productive fields. Since draining, I have raised successively on this land, 

 Trn, oats and grass. When in grass it has produced from 2 ^^ 

 othy hay per acre; and when in corn, it has been estimated from 60 „o 75 



bUSh The P ent a rTeost of draining this field thoroughly was about J9.00 per acre 

 and I am fully satisfied that the increase in the first two crops fully paid he 

 cost o draining ft, and I will say right here, that I firmly believe that the 

 increased product of any well tile-drained field will fully pay the cost of 



^STmTfl^perent I have put down on an average of something 

 over one nX of dram a year, and now have, in full operation , about eight 

 miles of drain. I have taken one field at a time, and drained out every imper- 



