er to be disposed of by drainage.

The occasion for thorough-drainage, however, is greater in the Northern
part of the United States than in England, upon land of the same
character; because, as we have already seen, rain falls far more
regularly there than here, and never in such quantities in a single day;
and because there the land is open to be worked by the plough nearly
every day in the year, while here for several months our fields are
locked up in frost, and our labor for the Spring crowded into a few
days. There, the water which falls in Winter passes into the soil, and
is drained off as it falls; while here, the snow accumulates to a great
depth, and in thawing floods the land at once.

Both here and in England, much of the land requires no under-draining,
as it has already a subsoil porous enough to allow free passage for all
the surplus water; and it is no small part of the utility of
understanding the principles of drainage, that it will enable farmers to
discriminate--at a time when draining is somewhat of a fashionable
operation with amateurs--between land that does and land that does _not_
require so expensive an operation.

CHAPTER IV.

DRAINAGE OF HIGH LANDS--WHAT LANDS REQUIRE DRAINAGE.

What is High Land?--Accidents to Crops from Water.--Do Lands need
Drainage in America?--Springs.--Theory of Moisture, with
Illustrations.--Water of Pressure.--Legal Rights as to Draining our
Neighbor's Wells and Land.--What Lands require Drainage?--Horace
Greeley's Opinion.--Drainage more Necessary in America than in
England; Indications of too much Moisture.--Will Drainage Pay?

By "high land," is meant land, the surface of which is not overflowed,
as distinguished from swamps, marshes, and the like low lands. How great
a proportion of such lands would be benefitted by draining, it is
impossible to estimate.

The Committee on Draining, in their Report to the State Agricultural
Society of New York, in 1848, assert that, "There is not one farm out of
every seventy-five in this State, but needs draining--yes, much
draining--to bring it into high cultivation. Nay, we may venture to say,
that every wheat-field would produce a larger and finer crop if properly
drained." The committee further say: "It will be conceded, that no
farmer ever raised a good crop of grain on wet ground, or on a field
where pools of water become masses of ice in the Winter. In such cases,
the grain pla