966 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Septem ber, 
A Talk on Draining. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
Much is said, considerable done, and doubtless 
more thought at the present day, about under¬ 
draining. But after all, every Yankee, before go¬ 
ing into the “ operation ” asks himself, and per¬ 
haps half the neighborhood besides, “ will it 
pay!” Where land is worth from one to two 
hundred dollars per acre, and hay sells at eighteen 
to twenty-five dollars per tun, and other crops in 
proportion, of course the question admits of but 
one answer. 
(1) But in this region where good land can be 
had for $25 to $30 per acre, hay averaging $5 to 
$7 per tun, corn 2 to 3 shillings per bushel, (ears,) 
wheat $1, etc., can a farmer afford to drain his 
land at the cost of $1 or upwards per rod 1 
(2) We have on our farm a meadow of about 
20 acres, (mostly peat, or muck,) which bears a 
very large burden of grass of very good quality ; 
much of it timothy, clover, and red-top. The 
land is comparatively new, and somewhat un¬ 
even ; most of it sufficiently hard to hold a team; 
much, perhaps most of it, could be plowed. Now 
the question is whether, under the circumstances, 
it would be a paying business to put in the drain 
tiles! They will cost from 20 to 50 cents per rod, 
according to size. 
(3) If tiles are used, what size will be most ad¬ 
vantageous? How deep should they be laid! 
and how'far apart! 
(4) I see Prof. Mapes recommends laying the 
tiles five feet below the surface. Is not this alto¬ 
gether too deep in a heavy clay soil ? 
(5) What would you think of making the drain 
of boards, sawed one inch in thickness and six 
inches in width, nailing the edges in the form of 
an eaves trough, and placing the open side down 
in this form, I have tried it on a small 
scale, where I wished to take off the surface 
water ; placing them 6 or 8 inches under ground, 
and find they answer a good purpose ; but 
whether it would pay where there is an outlay of 
50 cents, more or less, per rod, for digging and 
filling up the ditch, is the question. I have 
thought if the boards were made of chestnut, red 
beech, or some timber that would last a long time 
under ground it might pay. I would like the 
opinion of some who have had experience in the 
business. If you can give any further informa¬ 
tion in the American Agriculturist on this subject 
it will be most thankfully received. 
Geauga Co ., O. D. M. Allen. 
In reply to the above questions we answer: 
1 , Where produce commands a higher price, 
draining will of course yield a greater per cent 
on the investment, as the first cost of laying the 
tiles, and the increased returns per acre, will be 
about equal in both cases. Still, a few figures 
will demonstrate that it will pay to drain lands 
needing it, (which most soils do,) even at the 
prices for produce named above. Put the cost of 
this improvement at $20 per acre, (a fair figure,) 
and reckon the increased return at one tun of hay, 
or its equivalent, which is a safe calculation, even 
at the low estimate of $7 per tun, there is a re¬ 
turn of 35 per cent for the money expended ; for, 
with the exception of harvesting the increased 
amount, the cost of cultivation is no greater than 
before. We think money bringing in even 20 
per cent pays well. 
2. We can not answer as to this particular 
field. If it be a good natural meadow, and yields 
well year by year, it may be as well to leave it 
for this purpose, and not bring it under the plow 
at present. Should it fail, then drain, plow, and 
reclaim it. 
3. The article on page 198, this volume, (July 
No.,) contains the information asked for. 
4. You will see many ideas emanating from 
that source, which no other man entertains—in 
this instance he has “ progressed ” too far down 
for all practical purposes. From 3 to 4 feet is 
sufficient. 
5. Such drains are of service for a while, and 
certainly far better than none, but where tiles can 
be procured, they are every way preferable. A 
job of draining with tiles, once well done, is fin¬ 
ished for an almost indefinite period. 
We shall continue from time to time to give 
information, suggestions, and illustrations, on 
this most important subject, and shall be pleased 
to hear from those who have experimented in the 
matter. In describing what has been done, the 
kind of soil, condition before draining, cost of 
work, results of the operation, and other perti¬ 
nent facts should be plainly stated. We are con¬ 
fident that if a tenth part of those who have 
made a trial in draining would give their expe¬ 
rience, the testimony would set thousands of 
farmers to work digging to find out the capacity 
of the under side of their farms. 
Blinks from a Lantern...... XXI. 
BY DIOGENES REDIVIVUS. 
HOW TO GET CHEAP HAY. 
With hay selling from the field 
at fifteen to twenty dollars a 
5 tun through a large part of 
New-England, the question of 
cheap hay becomes a matter of 
absorbing interest. All through 
the North where cattle are kept up through the 
Winter, the hay crop is of the first importance. 
Indeed, taking the whole country into the account, 
the single item of grass is far more valuable than 
any other product of our soil. It far outstrips 
corn, cotton, and wheat, which generally attract 
more attention because they are more generally 
sold, affecting the commercial exchanges of the 
country. But the lowly grasses that our cattle 
graze during the Summer, and which, dried, form 
their principal food in Winter, are more import¬ 
ant to the prosperity of the country than any oth¬ 
er crop. This crop in the form of dried grass was 
estimated at about 14,000,000 of tuns at the last 
census, and the pasturage is quite as abundant 
and valuable. The increased production in the 
last ten years has been very great, both from the 
new lands brought under cultivation, and from the 
better cultivation of the old. Reckoning hay at 
ten dollars a tun, and putting the pasturage at 
equal value with hay, the whole crop of the coun¬ 
try can not be worth less than 350 millions of 
dollars. If by any cheap process we could add 
ten per cent to the production of grass, it would 
be an addition of thirty five millions to the wealth 
of the country. 
With all this enormous aggregate, the process¬ 
es of growing grass are very defective in all 
parts of the country. Not one farmer in ten re¬ 
sorts to the most economical methods. My op¬ 
portunities for observation in my recent lantern 
adventures, abundantly confirm me in this belief. 
The difference between the crops of good and 
poor farmers, or between a wise and bad husband¬ 
ry is more than three hundred per cent. 
The dearest process of getting hay is that of 
a neighbor of my friend Higgins. He lives on a 
fifty acre farm, and has been there for a score of 
years or more. Roberts belongs to the old school 
of farmers, and nothing is orthodox with him that 
is not done in the good old way. Grass he holds 
to be a “ nateral growth ” of the soil, and where 
a thing comes naturally, the more you do for it, 
the worse it is. He has some twenty acres in 
mowing, and the gross product of the whole does 
not exceed fifteen tuns. The yield per acre is 
always from a half tun to one tun per acre. This 
thin half nourished grass, he honestly believes is 
much more nutritious than that from a well cul¬ 
tivated meadow, though he can seethe difference 
between half starved and well fatted beef, and 
never fails to prefer the latter. He often de 
dares that he does not want land that will yield 
four tuns of hay to the acre. He does not see 
how cattle can eat such stuff, and doubts if it 
does them any good. Higgins’ cattle look sleek 
to be sure, but he feeds with meal, he guesses, 
and it must be the meal that makes the flesh. 
Roberts believes in selling hay, and nothing is 
more common than to see him start off to the 
city with a load, though he have to sell a cow 
during the Winter for want of fodder to keep her 
through. His oxen are never able to draw a full 
load, for lack of muscle on their ribs. His rota¬ 
tion is corn two years with ten loads of well 
sun dried and bleached barn yard manure to the 
acre, oats one year, without any manure, and 
then grass several years, until it will not produce 
enough to pay for mowing. The first year after 
stocking down, he cuts a tun to the acre, and if 
the season is uncommonly wet, he gets a tun and 
a quarter. His yield of corn is about twenty five 
bushels to the acre, which satisfies his ambition 
as well as ninety does the man who takes the 
premium at the County fair. In good grass 
years he gets a profit of four or five dollars an 
acre. 
Right across the way from Roberts, lives young 
Dan Baker, who has been on his 80 acre farm 
only five years, and has already got the most of 
it into good heart. He has about the same quan¬ 
tity of land in meadow that Roberts has, but he 
gets sixty tuns instead of fifteen, averaging three 
tuns to the acre. Roberts, of course, says that 
“ he dont want any such coarse stuff for his cat¬ 
tle to eat ” but some of your readers will have a 
curiosity to know how he does it. His rotation 
is two years in corn, one in Spring wheat, wi'h 
which he stocks down, then in grass four or five 
years until he gets ready to plow again. He does 
not believe in any thing less than three tuns of 
hay to the acre, and has an idea that land may 
be kept perpetually in grass without any falling 
off. When he takes up a piece of sward he puts 
on fifty loads of good stable manure or compost 
to the acre, and more if he has it. He usually 
gets from seventy to eighty bushels of corn to 
the acre. To do this, he plows twelve inches 
deep, while Roberts plows only five. He stocks 
his ground with a mixture of grasses, herds, 
clover, red top, etc , and finds that, with deep 
plowing, they get a much stronger hold, and last 
longer. He has great faith in top dressing, and 
makes compost every year for the purpose of 
spreading upon mowing land. On level land lie 
spreads this in the Fall and Winter. On hill 
sides he spreads it in May, after the grass is well 
started, so that the grass may hold the manure, 
and prevent it from washing. He makes great 
use of muck, of which he has a large deposit 
within a hundred rods of his barn. Indeed he 
built his barn with reference to the muck mine, 
so that he could get it at small cost for carting. 
He claims that he can make a cord of good com¬ 
post for fifty cents, and spread it upon the mow¬ 
ing for fifty more, and that five cords spread upon 
an acre, will show its effects for three years or 
more, and will make a difference in the yield ol 
three tuns of hay. In other words he gets three 
tuns of hay for five dollars, taking it as it stands 
