and other objectionable plants, to the exclusion of the proper grasses; the same lands, thoroughly drained, may be kept in full yield of the finest hay plants, as long as the ground is properly managed. It must, of course, be maaured, from time to time, and care should be taken to prevent the puddling of its surface, by men or animals, while it is too wet from recent rain. With proper attention to these points, it need not be broken up in a lifetime, and it may be relied on to produce uniformly good crops, always equal to the best obtained before drainage. So far as Cotton and Tobacco are concerned, there are not many instances recorded of the systematic drainage of lands appropriated to their cultivation, but there is every reason to suppose that they will both be benefitted by any operation which will have the effect of placing the soil in a better condition for the uses of all cultivated plants. The average crop of tobacco is about 700 lbs., and that of cotton probably 250 lbs. An addition of onefifth to the cotton crop, and of only one thirty-fifth to the tobacco crop, would make the required increase. The failure of the cotton crop, during the past season, (1866,) might have been entirely prevented, in many districts, by the thorough draining of the land. The advantages claimed for drainage with reference to the above-named staple crops, will apply with equal, if not greater force, to all garden and orchard culture. In fact, with the exception of osier willows, and cranberries, there is scarcely a cultivated plant which will not yield larger and better crops on drained than on undrained land,— enough better, and enough larger, to pay much more than the interest on the cost of the improvement. Yet, this advantage of draining, is, by no means, the only one which is worthy of consideration. Since the object of cultivation is to produce remunerative crops, of course, the larger and better the crops, the more completely is the object attained;—and to this extent the greatest benefit resulting from draining, lies in the increased yield But there is another advantage,—a material and mora advantage, which is equally to be considered. Instances of the profit resulting from under-draining, (coupled, as it almost always is, with improved cultiva tion,) are frequently published, and it would be easy to fortify this chapter with hundreds of well authenticated cases. It is, however, deemed sufficient to quote the following, from an old number of one of the New York dailies: "Some years ago, the son of an English farmer came to the United States, and let himself as a farm laborer, in New York State, on the following conditions: Commencing work at the first of September, he was to work ten hours a day for three years, and to receive in payment a deed of a field containing twelve acres-securing himself by an agreement, by which his employer was put under bonds of $2,000 to fulfill his part of the contract; also, during these three years, he was to have the control of the field; to work it at his own expense, and to give his em⚫ ployer one-half the proceeds. The field lay under the south side of a hill, was of dark, heavy clay resting on a bluish-colored, solid clay subsoil, and for many years previons, had not been known to yield anything but a yellowish, hard, stunted vegetation. "The farmer thought the young man was a simpleton, and that he, himself, was most wise and fortunate; but the former, nothing daunted by this opinion, which he was not unconscious that the latter entertained of him, immediately hired a set of laborers, and set them to work in the field trenching, as earnestly as it was well possible for men to labor. In the morning and evening, before and after having worked his ten hours, as per agreement, he worked with them, and continued to work in this way until, about the middle of the following November, he had finished the laying of nearly 5,000 yards of good tile under-drains. He then had the field plowed deep and thoroughly, and the earth thrown up as much as possible into ridges, and thus let it remain during the winter. Next spring he had the field again plowed as before, then cross. plowed and thoroughly pulverized with a heavy harrow, then sowed it with oats and clover. The yield was excellent-nothing to be compared to it had ever before been seen upon that field. Next year it gave two crops of clover, of a rich dark green, and enormously heavy and luxuriant; and the year following, after being manured at an expense of some $7 an acre, nine acres of the field yielded 936 bushels of corn, and 25 wagon loads of pumpkins; while from the remaining three acres were taken 100 bushels of potatoes-the return of this crop being upwards of $1,200. The time had now come for the field to fall into the yc ang man's vos cssion, and the farmer unhesitatingly offered him $1,500 to relinqu.e his title to it; and when this was unhesitatingly refused, ie 6. Tered $2,000, which was accepted. "The young man's account stood thus Half process of oats and straw, first year.. $165 00 Half value of sheep pasturage, first year... Halt of first crops of clover, first year..... 25 00 112 50 Helf of second crops of clover, including seed, second year.. 135 00 15 00 Half of crops of corn, pumpkins and potatoes, third year..... 690 00 2,000 00 $3,142 50 To under-d sining, labor and tiles...... $325 00 475 00 Acco nt Dr. To labor and manure, three seasons.. To labo given to farmer, $16 per month, 86 months.... 576 00-1,376 OC Balance in his favor....... .$1,766 50 Draining makes the farmer, to a great extent, the master of his vocation. With a sloppy, drenched, cold, uncongenial soil, which is saturated with every rain, and takes days, and even weeks, to become sufficiently dry to work upon, his efforts are constantly baffled by unfavorable weather, at those times when it is most important that his work proceed without interruption. Weeks are lost, at a season when they are all too short for the work to be done. The ground must be hurriedly, and imperfectly prepared, and the seed is put in too late, often to rot in the over-soaked soil, requiring the field to be planted again at a time which makes it extremely doubtful whether the crop will ripen before the frost destroys it. The necessary summer cultivation, between the rows, has to be done as the weather permits; and much more of it is required because of the baking of the ground. The whole life of the farmer, in fact, becomes a constant struggle with nature, and he fights always at a disadvan tage. What he does by the work of days, is mainly un. done by a single night's storm. Weeds grow apace, and the land is too wet to admit of their being exterminated. By the time that it is dry enough, other pressing work occupies the time; and if, finally, a day comes when they may be attacked, they offer ten times the resistance that they would have done a week earlier. The operations of the farm are carried on more expensively than if the ability to work constantly allowed a smaller force to be employed. The crops which give such doubtful promise, require the same cultivation as though they were certain to be remunerative, and the work can be done only with increased labor, because of the bad condition of the soil. From force of tradition and of habit, the farmer accepts his fate and plods through his hard life, piously ascribing to the especial interference of an inscrutable Providence, the trials which come of his own neglect to use the means of relief which Providence has placed within his reach, No Trouble enough he must have, at any rate, but not necessarily all that he now has. It is not within the scope of the best laid drains to control storm or sunshine,-but it is within their power to remove the water of the storm, rapidly and sufficiently, and to allow the heat of the sunshine to penetrate the soil and do its hidden work. human improvement can change any of the so-called "phenomena" of nature, or prevent the action of the least of her laws; but their effects upon the soil and its crops may be greatly modified, and that which, under certain circumstances, would have caused inconvenience or loss, may, by a change of circumstances, be made positively beneficial. In the practice of agriculture, which is pre-eminently an economic art, draining will be prosecuted because of the pecuniary profit which it promises, and,-very properly, it will not be pursued, to any considerable extent, where the money, which it costs, will not bring money in return. Yet, in a larger view of the case, its collateral advantages are of even greater moment than its mere profits. It is the foundation and the commencement of the most intelligent farming. It opens the way for other ovements, which, without it, would produce only doubtful or temporary benefits; and it enables the farmer so to extend and enlarge his operations, with fair promise of success, as to raise his occupation from a mere waiting upon the uncertain favors of nature, to an intelligent handling of her forces, for the attainment of almost certain results. The rude work of an unthinking farmer, who scratches the surface soil with his plow, plants his seed, and trusts to the chances of a greater or less return, is unmitigated drudgery, unworthy of an intelligent man; but he who investigates all of the causes of success and failure in farming, and adapts every operation to the requirements of the circumstances under which he works; doing everything in his power that may tend to the production of the results which he desires, and, so far as possible, avoiding everything that may interfere with his success,-leaving nothing to chance that can be secured, and securing all that chance may offer,-is engaged in the most ennobling, the most intelligent and the most progressive of all industrial avocations. In the cultivation of retentive soils, drainage is the key to all improvement, and its advantage is to be measured not simply by the effect which it directly produces in increasing production, but, in still greater degree, by the extent to which it prepares the way for the successful application of improved processes, makes the farmer inde pendent of weather and season, and offers freer scope to intelligence in the direction of his affairs. |