316; QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 May, 1902. 
farm manager at the Queensland Agricultural College, was in charge of the 
drainage of a large area of swampy land which was to be reclaimed. There is 
another important reason why deep drains in wet land should not be at once 
filed in. The land is sour, and the more it is exposed to the action of the 
atmosphere the sooner it will sweeten. 
___ By the subsidence of the land the soil becomes more compact, and land 
which will not bear the weight of a sheep would, in a few months, carry horses 
on its surface. 
Tf you look up the 8th Lesson in the Second Book you will find that T 
advised you to go and examine the crops on drained and undrained land. There 
is such a marked difference in the stand of the crop and in the colour denoting 
health or otherwise that you must come to the conclusion that it will pay to 
drain. There is another great advantage arising from draining, and that is that 
you can put horses on to drained fields after continued wet weather many days 
sooner than you can on the undrained land. 
Well, I think I have given you enough on the subject of draining to enable 
you to grasp the first principles of the art. Of course, there are all sorts of 
things connected with it which you can learn by experience and observation, but 
what I have told you is what is generally accepted by scientific farmers, and you 
cannot go far wrong in following their lead. 
As to whether draining will pay, that all depends on the expense entailed 
by the work, on the quality of your soil, on the aspect of the farm, the climate 
and the rainfall, and last, but certainly not least, on the amount of intelligent 
work you put in your business as a farmer. 
Here is something for you to ponder over on the question as to whether 
draining will pay or not :— . 
Tf you own your land, you must pay your various rates—divisional board, 
and soon. You must also pay for labour, implements, and food. Now, if 
this land of yours is so wet that it rarely will yield you a full crop, you work 
at a great disadvantage. You decide to drain it, and you then find that with- 
out any additional cost for labour, seed, or money, it will yield a good crop, 
and this great increase you may properly set down as the profit of drainage. 
A writer in an Australian newspaper gives two instances—of course, there 
are hundreds of others—which will prove the statement that drainage pays. 
One is, that a 20-acre field, which usually only yielded 25 bushels of corn per 
acre, was tile-drained at a cost of £2 per acre. When this work was done, the 
next crop yielded 60 bushels per acre, and the yield of the other rotation crops 
was equally increased. 
Now just reckon the gain in the corn. The increase was 85 bushels per 
acre, at that time worth 1s. 3d. per bushel. That one crop paid the whole cost 
of the draining, and had the price been double that, or 2s. 6d. per bushel, which 
is an average price, that farmer would not only have paid for the draining, but 
would have had £2 7s. 6d. to the good per acre. ’ 
The other was a case in which a big swamp had been drained at a cost of 
30s. per acre. It was broken up and sown to millet. The first crop paid the 
expense of the under-drainage. 
In the reclaimed fens of North-west Germany the yield of wheat is 
80 bushels per acre and of potatoes 84 tons. One head of cattle is reared and 
fattened for the butcher on an acre; and there are instances of three head 
being raised per acre, all owing to drainage and irrigation. 
With these examples I will close these lessons on drainage. 
Questions on Lesson 6. 
1. When you decide to drain a piece of land, what is the first step to 
take ? 
“ minor or lateral drain’? 
3. Where would you dig the main drain ? 
2. What is meant by the terms “main drain,” “submain drain,” and. 
