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 one-fifth 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[pg 170] benefit resulting from draining, lies in the increased yield. But there is another advantage,—a material and moral advantage,—which is equally to be considered.
Instances of the profit resulting from under-draining, (coupled, as it almost always is, with improved cultivation,) 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 employer 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 previous, 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 young[pg 171] man's possession, and the farmer unhesitatingly offered him $1,500 to relinquish his title to it; and when this was unhesitatingly refused, he offered $2,000, which was accepted.
"The young man's account stood thus
| Half proceeds of oats and straw, first year | $165 00 |
| Half value of sheep pasturage, first year | 25 00 |
| Half of first crops of clover, first year | 112 50 |
| Half of second crops of clover, including seed, second year | 135 00 |
| Half of sheep pasturage, second year | 15 00 |
| Half of crops of corn, pumpkins and potatoes, third year | 690 00 |
| Received from farmer, for relinquishment of title | 2,000 00 |
| ——— | |
| Account Dr. | $3,142 50 |
| To under-draining, labor and tiles | $325 00 |
| To labor and manure, three seasons | 475 00 |
| To labor given to farmer, $16 per month, 36 months | 576 00—1,376 00 |
| ——— | |
| 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.