294 
DRAINING LANDS.—MR. VAII.’s DURHAMS. 
The Plowing Match now took place about a 
mile from town; but as the evening train was to 
leave about this hour, and as we were under the 
necessity of returning to the city that night, we 
could not stay to see it. We subsequently under¬ 
stood from one who was present, that eleven teams 
entered as competitors for the premiums. The 
task was the usual quantity of one eighth of an 
acre ; the one that did his work best within an 
hour, to be considered the winner. The soil was 
a heavy loam, and the depth of furrow required, 
7 inches. The width of the furrow was not pre¬ 
scribed, but run from 13 to 15 inches. This was 
heavy plowing, and most of the teams had two 
yoke of cattle in them. The average time was 
32 minutes. The plowing was excellently well 
done. Mr. Zenas Rider took the first premium 
of $6; Mr. Erastus Morgan, the second of $4; 
and Mr. George Clarke, the third of $3. Thus 
ended the Agricultural Show for the beautiful and 
fertile county of Hartford. We had a delightful 
day of it there, and feel under obligations for the 
attentions showed us by the officers of the society, 
and others whom we met during our brief stay in 
the county. 
DRAINING LANDS. 
Much time and labor is annually wasted for 
want of properly understanding the best method 
of draining lands. Where there is surface-water 
merely, or pond-holes to drain off, draining is 
easily accomplished by merely running a ditch 
through the lowest part of the grounds, to a depth 
below the standing water. In ground that is 
springy, thorough draining is more complicated; 
but by proper observation, and a little experience, 
one may soon become so well acquainted with 
what is necessary to be done, as to feel under no 
embarrassment in ordinary cases. 
The principal rule to observe in draining springy 
ground, is to seek the sources of these springs, and 
cut them off from the land to be drained, by dig¬ 
ging the ditch deeper than the springs, near where 
they make their first appearance in it. For ex¬ 
ample, most of the land which it is desired to 
drain in this vicinity, is low swales or meadows, 
encircled by banks of table land, or hills of a greater 
or less height, from which the water oozes out 
and saturates the ground below. In most of the 
attempts which we have seen to drain this kind 
of land, a ditch is merely cut through the centre 
of the swale. This only serves to draw the water 
from the higher ground to it, without making the 
land any drier, except for a few feet on each side 
of the ditch. Now the true way is to cut a ditch 
at the foot of the banks or hills bounding the land 
to be drained, lower than the springs which ooze 
out of these elevations, and the water is imme¬ 
diately and effectually drawn off, and the ground 
which before was saturated like a wet sponge, 
becomes dry at once, and may then be put under 
cultivation. 
The open weather of this and the following 
month is an excellent time for ditching, there 
being little to be done in our northern climate, 
save taking care of the stock, diggingmarl, or pre¬ 
paring composts for manures. We are glad to 
see, in our frequent excursions over the country, 
that much more attention is paid now to draining 
than formerly; but there are thousands of acres 
yet in the older-settled states, which claim the at¬ 
tention of the spade, and these lands, as we have 
before remarked, when divested of water, and put 
under cultivation, prove of the strongest and most 
valuable quality. They frequently abound with 
peat and rich vegetable matter, to a greater or less 
depth, and the excess of this can in all cases be 
used for fertilizing other portions of the farm. 
MR. VAIL’S DURHAMS. 
As some of Mr. Yail T s stock was imported from 
the renowned herd of Mr. Bates of England, and 
as we had not seen it for nearly two years, at 
which time it had not attained sufficient age to be 
fully developed, we took a fancy, one of those clear 
sunny mornings in July, when the city is so hot, 
and the country looks so cool and inviting, to step 
on board the magnificent steamboat Empire, just 
as she was casting loose her fastenings, prepara¬ 
tory to a start on her daily trip to Troy. This is 
a distance from New York, by river, of about 160 
miles; but that is nothing now-a-days, and in less 
than 10 hours we were safely landed at the foot 
of the classic Mount Ida, and in half an hour more 
Mr. Vail set us down among his stock on the 
farm. 
The first animal that we looked at, was Wel¬ 
lington, as a matter of course; but how he had 
changed from the light 2-year-old form which we 
presented to our readers as his portrait, in the De¬ 
cember No. of the first volume of this periodical. 
He was now (last July) 3 years and 9 months old, 
and had already nearly the full development of a 
mature, grown bull. Wellington is not large to 
look at, yet he is very heavy to weigh ; then his 
horns, head, and limbs, are so fine; his points so 
well filled out, especially in rotundity of body, 
and depth and breadth of brisket, that it makes 
