JULY 27 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
471 
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the piece of land near by. Thn piece of land 
appeared to be entirely above the valley first 
mentioned, aud a casual observer wonld say at 
once that the natural Jplace for an outlet was in 
the valley. Thinking the same myself, 1 pro¬ 
ceeded to lay out the drains so as to utilize the 
outlet already built. Judge of my surprise when 
after passing the ridge which separated the val¬ 
ley from the piece of land, I found my level 
notes indicated that I was descending instead of 
aaoending. I thought thero must be some mis¬ 
take, and took the levels a second time, with tho 
same result, however. The result was that a 
new outlet had to be built to drain this pioce of 
land, and we wore forced to run the drains in a 
direction nearly opposite that which wo first in¬ 
tended. Had no level been run over this piece 
of land, I have no doubt that those drains would 
have been laid with the outlet higher than the 
other end. As it was, I experienced a terrible 
criticism by an experienced drain bnildor for not 
draining the lower piece of laud through tho 
upper outlet in the valley. He said, £f any ono 
could see that there was tho proper place for the 
outletyet the fact of the matter was, that the 
only thing that could iudnoo water to flow 
through it would have been a powerful pump. 
You will doubtless think that a piece of laud so 
deceptive, must have been nearly level, but such 
was not the case, for the distauee between the 
valley spoken of and the land to be drained did 
not exceed ten rods, yet the bottom of the valley 
was five and a half feet higher. The reason for 
the deception was in this case very simple; the 
sloping land was mistaken for level land, and 
with that idea in the mind the valley appeared 
---- Indeed, I asked a friend how much 
guide for your bottom above your ditch as al¬ 
ready described. The tendency is so great to 
follow undulations in the surface, without know¬ 
ing it, however, that oven the moat experienced 
ditchers often make such blunders. 
one-half hour during the day in making prepara¬ 
tions which will certainly lead to success in the 
construction of your ditch, or to be continually 
working in uncertainty; squinting up the ditch, 
going up and squinting back, and finally arriv- 
as that not cooked This is undoubtedly true, 
but the expense counteracts in a great measure 
the economy, and the cost of the apparatus to 
do it precludes its use nnlesa there is a large 
amount of stock to be fed. The same purpose 
can be effected if the grain is malted the Bama 
as barley is in the malting of beer. If hay be 
moistened with water and left in a pile till it 
heats and'commences to ferment, it will answer 
the same purpose as cooking it. This converts 
a portion of the indigestible substances into di¬ 
gestible ones, which is what cookiDg tho food 
does. This is more easily done than cooking 
the food and saves the costly apparatus. A 
large box to hold the hay that it may be some¬ 
what compressed, is all that is required, and if 
grain and pulped roots are mixed with it and all 
fermented together, the whole makes a food 
Bnperior to that fed raw, while the mixture i3 
better than any of the ingredients alone. There 
is but little saved on labor, but the savings on 
fuel and cost of apparatus are items to bo con¬ 
sidered, and, moreover, malted grain is better 
than ground grain to feed. 
Plymouth Co., Mass. An dee w H. Ward. 
SWEET POTATO CULTURE, 
M. B. PRINCE, 
the lower, 
he supposed that piece of land, the length of 
whioh was about thirty rods, would vary from 
the level. He said he should think it nearly per¬ 
fectly level, yet in reality, in going that thirty 
rods, there was a fall of nearly ten feet. 
This case just cited shows how little depend¬ 
ence can be placed on the eye. Even men with 
much experience often find themselves Badly 
mistaken, and if they are men who profit by such 
experience they learn to bo very cautions re¬ 
garding the judgments of the eye, and ever dis¬ 
trustful of appearances. 
If you can have running water through the 
ditch when laying the tile, you probably will be 
able to keep your ditch constantly rising in the 
The most common manner of growing sweet 
potatoes at the South— and with the exception 
that a hot-bed is required, the same mode of 
operation will do for any locality where they can 
be successfully cultivated—is to choose a warm 
locality, protected on the north and fully ex¬ 
posed to tho sun, such as the south side of a 
building or fenco. Mark off about twenty 
Hqnare feet of surface for each bushel of seed to 
be plautod ; remove three or four inches of the 
surface soil, placing it in a pile; then dig the 
pit some three inches deeper; place about two 
inches of fine fresh horse manure in the bottom, 
and on this two iuehes of good earth ; then add 
another two inches of manure, filling up to an 
inch above tho surrouuding surface, with rich 
earth ; on this place the potatoes thickly, though 
A, DRAIN-GAUGE. B, SMALLER DRAIN-GAUGES. C, LARGER DRAIN-GAUGE 
The method of construction used at the Col¬ 
lege, was devised and perfected by Dr. Miles, 
formerly Professor of Agriculture : the method 
is Bimple, and employs no instruments but what 
may bo constructed by any man of ordinary in¬ 
genuity. You may urge against tho nse of these 
ing at the undignified conclusion of a guess, 
which probably in one case out of five, at least,’ 
is erroneous, and the labor spent in that case is 
entirely thrown away. The cost of one blunder 
would pay the expense* of many sewers. The 
motto of the under-drainer should be, “ B* suro 
same direotion, but oven then it is next to an im¬ 
possibility to keep the ascent uniform, aud there 
is danger of using all the fall before constructing 
the whole ditch, ir you have no running water 
as a guide—and you very seldom will—the proba¬ 
bility of having vertical beads and dips iu your 
n, forming effectual dams, is very great in¬ 
deed, unless you adopt the method of building a 
DIFFEREWTIAD. miAIN-< 
instruments, viz : level, shears, boning-rod 
and string, that it is a puttering job to Bet them 
up, and takes time that oould better be employed 
in the actual work of constructing the ditch. 
That may be true, but the Yankee way of guess¬ 
ing also takes time, for the Yaukee only guesses 
after he has examined all sides. Now which is 
cheaper, I leave it to you to decide, to spend 
A/r kothamsti; o. 
you are right, then push ahead," which, if prop¬ 
erly lived up to, will do away with all the com¬ 
plaints of inefficient drainage. 
-« 
COOKING FOOD FOR STOCK. 
Ix is claimed that by steaming or cooking food 
for Stock it is more nourishing, and that a less 
not touching each other. Use seed of medium 
size without splitting (as often recommended), 
better small than largo, as they produce plants 
equally good in every respect and many moro iu 
number from a bushel. Press the potatoes 
firmly in tho soil; cover with a mixture of sandy 
soil and manure, three inches deep; pat the sur¬ 
face down Bmoothly. 
