yield of wheat has been 40 bushels this year, and in former seasons, when his neighbors were reaping 8, 10, or 15 bushels, he has had 30 and 40. We are informed by him that there has been no such crop as the present since 1845, either in yield or quality; and the absence of weevil is remarkable. A variety of white wheat from Missouri, sown more thinly than usual, has yielded 31 bushels to something less than one bushel of seed sown. It headed out a fortnight earlier than the Soule's, but ripened later -probably because thinly sown. Mr. Johnston thinks we have been sowing too thickly for fifteen years past upon rich land, and there can be no question but that he is right. Still, it is better to take a medium course between thick and thin sowing, and thus avoid, on the one hand, rust, overcrowding, and waste of seed, and on the other, placing an entire crop at the mercy of insects which may attack it.

SALT FOR RUST.

As a sure preventive to rust, to give stiffness to the straw, and to expedite the ripening of wheat, by four or five days, Mr. Johnston sows five bushels of salt to the acre, broadcast, after seeding. He thinks, moreover, that for each of the five bushels of salt almost an extra bushel of wheat may be expected.

SIZE OF TILES FOR MAINS AND LATERALS.

A too common error with improving farmers is that of using too small tile for main drains, and too large for laterals. Those accustomed to the roomy conduits of ordinary stone drains, suppose that nothing less than a three inch bore will conduct the drainage from the surface into the mains; and curiously enough the same persons, unmindful of the large area drained by each system of laterals, err in using mains but little larger in bore than the

latter. If any are willing to look into the results of the drainage on our Central Park, the most stupendous work of the kind in the country, and one of the best conducted, they will find that the one and a half inch and two inch tiles there used for laterals do not run full even after the most violent and protracted rains, and yet from a single "system" of twelve acres, the discharge after a recent rain was at the rate of 3,000 gallons per hour. This error of using too large tile Mr. Johnston fell into, and now that he has learned better after a twenty years' experience, he cautions his brother farmers against using larger than two inch tile for laterals. For mains each farmer must provide as the quantity of water to be conducted is greater or less. In many cases Mr. Johnston has used two rows of four inch, in others six inch, and in one, semicircles of eleven inches, one as top and one as bottom, making a pipe nine inches bore to discharge water. At first he had many to take up and replace with large pipe to secure a complete discharge. Main drains he makes six to eight inches deeper than those emptying into them -not with an abrupt shoulder, but leveled up, so that the descent may take place gradually in the length of two tiles-29 inches-and always giving the laterals a slight sidewise direction at the end, so that their water will be discharged down stream into the mains.

Another error he at first fell into was, in having too many drains on lowlands, and not enough on the uplands; thus seeking to carry off the effect, while the cause-the outcropping springs on the hillside-remained untouched. Where the source of the water is most abundant, the means for removing it should most abundantly be furnished. Rain water falls on hills, sinks to an impervious stratum, along which it runs until it either finds a porous section through which it can fall to a lower level, or not

finding such, continues on the hard bottom of the side of the hill, where it crops out in the form of a spring. If this spring water is suffered to run down hill, it washes the hillside more or less, and coming to the lowland, sinks as far as it may into the soil, makes it sodden, and produces bad effects. To drain effectually, then, we must cut off the supply above, and fewer drains will be necessary below. Here is the whole secret of the thing, and here we see why so much money is spent to so little purpose by those who think that they should only drain wet lowland. Appearances are deceitful, and we should not suppose that a seemingly dry upland is really dry.

Tile works have been established at many places in New York state, in several places in Massachusetts, in twelve or fifteen counties in Ohio. Some five or six different tile machines are in active operation at Cleveland, and are unable to supply the demand; in fact so far as demand is concerned, the same may be said of every place at which tile are made in Ohio. Michigan, Indiana, Maryland and several other states have tile works.

Considerable draining has been done in the north-west part of Ohio, in that region more familiarly known as the Black Swamp-a peculiar formation extending over several counties-by means of open ditches. Brush, wood and stone drains are not unknown in Ohio; and within a few years past upward of four hundred miles of underdraining have been done in Union, Clark, Madison, Fayette, Highland and Clinton counties, by means of the so-called mole plow-a detailed description of this machine will be found in an appropriate portion of this work.

PART I.

THEORY OF DRAINAGE.

INTRODUCTION

THE chief object of drainage is to liberate the superfluous moisture in springy land, or such lands as have an impervious strata near the surface of the soil-the carrying away of the water which accumulates on the surface, from rains, snows, or freshets, is a secondary object only of thorough drainage. Where there are springs, there is a continued tendency of the water to force through the superincumbent strata, so as to rise and spread over the surface such land must, even in times of drought, contain more than a proper amount of moisture.

Where there is an impervious subsoil, it is there where subterranean waters accumulate and remain a given period, and then, perhaps, disappear. As a general thing, this ground water sinks the deepest, late in the summer; in autumn it begins to rise, and in winter and spring it attains its maximum hight. Now, when the winter and spring waters, from rains and snows, from the surface, find their ways down to the waters retained, and resting on the subsoil, then the entire soil becomes too thoroughly saturated with moisture to admit of tillage operations. Winter grains will not succeed at all in such a soil, and summer crops are at best very precarious. The roots of winter plants, in quest of nourishment, penetrate to the subsoil, and finding a superabundance of water there, become dropsical, and, consequently, perish; but if the

roots can possibly find their way into a drier portion of the soil, even by returning toward the surface (they not unfrequently do so), yet even then they become diseased, and the plant becomes unthrifty and yields but a small product; for, according to the natural tendency, every plant pushes its roots downward, and if it does not succeed, it is prevented only by the stony or watery condition of the subsoil. But even when the water is withdrawn from the surface of the field, there is still but little to be hoped for in regard to cultivated plants; for the soil, previously softened, now hardened by the influence of the sun's rays and air, does not permit the requisite circulation of air, and prevents the extension of the roots. A very natural consequence is, that the plants become diseased and yield but little.

The same condition of things exists also with respect to summer crops upon wet grounds. Late sowing, alone, can succeed; the water-hardened soil is very difficult to work, and, therefore, affords a very incompetent nidus or bed for the growth of plants. Consequently, plants succeed badly, under all these circumstances; an entire failure of the crop, indeed, may occur, if a sudden violent rain unites its influence with the rising ground water.

Now a rational agriculture requires that the spring and ground water be removed; for, however necessary moisture in the soil may be for the successful growth of the plants, yet, as we have experienced, an excessive moisture produces the opposite effect. An excess of moisture in the soil, is recognized by certain water plants, such as bent-grass, reeds, shave-grass,moss, ranunculacæ, etc., growing, and gradually crowding out useful plants. The color and condition of the plants themselves, also indicate the superabundance of moisture in the soil. They are generally coarse and reddish, when their plants