26 
Draining. 
BY N. J. SHEPHERD. 
The importance of thorough draining 
cannot be well overestimated. Crops will 
not thrive when the soil is too wet. Wheth¬ 
er in the garden or in the field it will pay 
to take considerable pains t® secure it. 
While tile draining if thoroughly done is of 
course the best and when once done will 
last for years; yet where this cannot be 
done, much good can be accomplished by 
taking pains to secure surface drainage. 
During the winter it is an easy matter 
when the snow melts to see where the 
lowest places are and where the water 
stands longest; and by spending a little 
time in observation, the work of running 
out furrows that will afford an outlet for 
these places, is made easy. 
This work should be attended to suffi¬ 
ciently early so that the spring’s work will 
receive the benefit. Land that has been 
furrowed out so that the water can run off 
readily, will dry out and be ready for the 
plow enough earlier than land that has 
been left to dry as it can, to pay well for 
the trouble. A few days earlier plowing 
and planting of the spring crops often 
mean a considerable difference in the yield, 
and some times is the making or losing of 
the crop. On many fields there are spots or 
low places where some crops are ruined, 
which a man with a team and plow could 
drain off thoroughly in ten minutes and 
be thus made to yield a profitable crop. 
You have seen places in a wheat field with 
having plenty of rain, that my garden 
dries out rapidly; the surface water having 
outlets is soon out of the way, and much 
valuable time is gained in drying out. There 
is no need of washing; a little care exercised 
in the proper running of the furrows will 
avoid this, and the super-abundance of 
water is easily got rid of, and the land is in 
a condition to work three or four days 
earlier than if no pains were taken to carry 
off the water. 
Three years ago I rented a piece of ground 
for corn that was bottom land lying along 
the edge of a spring branch, the bank of 
which would average six feet and was 
very steep. Right along the edge for a 
distance of perhaps twenty feet, the land 
was a little higher than back of that and 
the consequence was that the field was wet; 
too wet for early cultivation and in a wet 
season the field failed to produce a prof¬ 
itable crop. A few minutes work with 
one horse and a plow, early in the spring 
would have opened a furrow to the lowest 
place, and afforded a good outlet for the 
water with but little if any waste. By 
giving the water an outlet free and unin- 
terupted, the land dried out very quickly 
and being a nice black loam I raised a first 
rate crop of corn there, and with no trouble 
comparatively. At the first two cultivations 
I had to run out furrows again but ten 
minutes work was all that was required, 
and with that a good crop was raised where 
before had been failure. And there are 
many such spots in farms that could be 
remedied as easily as these. 
the grain growing where the water is allow¬ 
ed to stand, when ten minutes work would 
make sufficient drain, yet the water is 
allowed to stand and kill the wheat. In 
the spring the weeds spring up and instead 
of a profitable yield of wheat, we have a 
mass of weeds that will injure the land 
fully as much as the water. 
In the garden, especially when you 
want an early garden, drainage is very 
essential. I always plow my garden up, 
deep and thoroughly every fall, and then 
run out furrows so that the land will be 
thoroughly drained as quickly as possible. 
I find that in the spring when we are 
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" M M W Orville D. Beldino, Middletown, N. Y. 
