180 
GAPES IN CHICKENS. 
moisture, are stretching away to the fullest per- 
fection of their stature. The difference in the 
average annual value of crops, raised on drained 
and undrained fields, is frequently Jive to one; 
and wherever their natural condition is such as 
imperatively to require drainage, it is seldom 
less than two to one. 
The expense of this operation may, at first 
sight, seem too great to admit of its adoption in 
this country, where land is so abundant, and 
labor so dear. And so it is, wherever land is so 
cheap that the current value of three or four 
acres, is only the cost of draining one. But if 
the same quantity of produce can be raised from 
one acre that is well drained, that is yielded by 
^two acres of similar land, undrained, we have 
the same money received from the one acre as 
the two ; and we have it, too, at a much less cost ; 
•for In the last, we have spent twice the labor in 
preparing, planting, cultivating, and harvesting, 
and often more — twice the seed, twice the ma- 
nure, twice the fencing, and twice the taxes. All 
these expenses may, and frequently do, on un- 
prepared land, much exceed the value of the 
crop, while such as has been thoroughly drained, 
seldom fail to yield the most satisfactory returns. 
Thus, one man may be annually growing poor- 
er by his work, while another, more intelligent, 
considerate, and enterprising, may be growing 
rich. We were about to assert, that it is better 
to sell one half the land required to be drained, 
and with the proceeds, drain the remainder; 
but a moment's reflection assures us that a man 
had better give away one half, and find means 
to drain what is left, than go on in the untidy, 
thriftless, wasteful system of neglect, pursued 
by too many. 
The expense of thorough underdraining in 
England, a few years since, was from £7 to £10, 
or even £12 per acre; but, owing to recent im- 
provements and facilities in the mode of doing 
it, and procuring materials, the cost is reduced 
to about £4 or £5, ($20 to $25,) a point beyond 
which, it would seem scarcely to admit of being 
lessened; though a recent intelligent writer 
thinks an implement can be made that will ac- 
complish the excavation, for id. per yard that 
now costs f d. We have but to procure ma- 
chines for making the pipe tile, and provide the 
proper implements for excavation, when we can 
accomplish the same object, as cheaply as it is 
now done abroad. The difference in labor is 
all that we have to overcome for this purpose, 
and this may be nearly balanced by the adop- 
tion of some machinery not used elsewhere ; 
and by the advantage our drier, hotter climate 
affords us, of efficient draining, although drains 
should be placed further apart. We think, at the 
utmost, we need not add more than 20 to 30 
per cent, to the English prices. This may make 
the cost of draining, from $25 to $35 per acre — 
possibly, in some instances, $40. If the result 
should prove that we can double the crop on 
such fields, there are millions of acres of land 
in this country, that will this moment justify 
the adoption of a system of thorough under- 
draining ; and money, talents, and labor will be 
vastly more profitably invested in this way, 
than in the insane investments of life, health, 
capital, everything, daily and profusely made 
in California, and similar enterprises. 
With these manifest advantages, which com- 
mend themselves, at a glance, to every intelli- 
gent mind, and which are felt and acknowledged 
by many of our most enlightened agriculturists, 
why is not the system at once introduced and 
generally adopted ? The answer may be read- 
ily found, in the unwillingness of the human 
mind, to deviate from the beaten track, want of 
capital, want of tools, and want of encourage- 
ment and example. Even in England, after 50 
years' practice, in limited sections of the king- 
dom, the system required the encouragement of 
parliament. This was afforded by the loan of 
$10,000,000, in moderate sums, to such landlords 
and tenants as chose to accept the offer, on con- 
dition of an annual repayment to the govern- 
ment, of 6£ per cent, on the amount borrowed, 
for 22 years, which fully discharged both prin- 
cipal and interest. Parliament has further and 
indefinitely augmented this fund, by enacting 
" The Private Money Drainage Act," which gives 
equal encouragement and security to the capi- 
talist, and facility and advantage to the tiller of 
the soil, to secure to himself all the advantages 
of the system, at the smallest inconvenience and 
expense. How beneficent and politic was this 
act, and how greatly does it reflect the sterling 
sense and patriotism of its legislators, in com- 
parison with the paltry, mousing policy of our 
state, and general legislation on similar sub- 
jects ! 
In the absence, however, of all anticipated 
legislative aid, we are happy to be able to re- 
cord the fact, that the system has already been 
commenced at various and remote points in the 
country, by individual enterprise, and its ad- 
vantages must soon commend it to a wide-spread 
and general acceptance, We had hoped to 
enter with some minuteness into the various 
plans and modes adopted, but our present lim- 
its forbid, and we can only hope to recur to it 
again hereafter. 
We will add, for the guidance of such as may 
be inclined to import a machine for making 
drainage pipes, that of all the machines for this 
purpose, exhibited at Norwich, England, in 1849, 
Whitehead's stood decidedly first, and was 
awarded the highest premium. This machine 
was worked by two men and a boy, and turned 
out in five minutes 185 pipes, 13£ inches long 
by two inches diameter. Its cost is £23 in Eng- 
land, or less than $100. 
GAPES IN CHICKENS. 
About a year ago, a correspondent of the 
Dollar Newspaper published an article on the 
above-named disease, and tried to prove, (and 
no doubt believed,) it to be dyspepsia. He said 
that a brood of chickens, hatched and reared 
about an old out building, was all healthy and 
free from gapes, while those raised in the neigh- 
borhood of the dwelling or dunghill, were nearly 
all affected with that disease. I have raised 
some thousands of chickens, and in different 
places. My experience is that they are not lia- 
