SHELBY COUNTY. 455 
through his extensive beds for the: purpose of drying them to bring 
them into cultivation. Where the peat becomes dry it is porous, 
light and friable. It requires no breaking up to receive the crop, but is 
‘only furrowed out to secure precision in the rows of corn that it may be 
worked with the plow. The process of drying must continue from year 
to year where the system of drainage is complete. The result may be 
disastrous if such a bed of inflammable matter is exposed, as it- must be, 
to the malice or carelessness of any one who might set fire to it in the ex- 
tremely dry weather of our late summer seasons. Already, imperfectly 
dried out as the beds are yet, where persons have carelessly allowed fire 
to catch in the surface of the peat deep holes have been burned, extend- 
ing, doubtless, to the undried substratum. No means that could be 
brought to bear in those regions would be effectual in quenching a fire 
in one of those peat beds if they are once thoroughly dried out. The 
remedy I would suggest is one of prevention—it is to close up the system 
of drains during the winter, allowing the water to stand in them, saturat- 
ing the beds completely. The drains being opened in the spring, the 
beds of peat would not become fully dried out during summer. By re- 
taining moisture they will bring better crops and be safe from conflagra- 
tion. 
THE RAIN-FALL. | 
This county is near the border of the area marked in the “Rain-Chart”’ 
of the Smithsonian Institution in which the average of rain-fall is forty 
inches. In the absence of other reliable data, any indefinite impressions 
that the amount is less than this must be disregarded. We are apt to 
judge by the effects; for example, the state of the crops, whereas the 
larger portion of the rain-fall is at a season when no visible influence can 
reach the crops from it. Plainly, all that rain and snow-water, which 
runs off the frozen crust of the ground in the winter, does not affect, one 
way or the other, the crops of the ensuing summer. The same can be 
said of the most of the rain, which runs off as soon as it falls, at any 
season. 
An interest attaches to the amount of water which falls, in various 
forms, in this and the adjoining counties, particularly to the north-east, 
on account of the requirements of the canal. Data are wanting for deter- 
mining the amount of water carried off by the canal and the river from 
the area above the Summit-level of the canal in this and the adjoining 
counties on the north-east. The nature of the soil is such that it will 
shed as large a proportion of the water which falls upon it as any other 
soil in the State. An immense quantity flows from above the highest 
