rained, and fenced, and plowed,
and there is a great deal that had better be let alone. Whether draining
is profitable or not, depends on the value and character of the land in
question, as well as on its condition as to water. Where good land is
worth one hundred dollars an acre, it might be profitably drained; when,
if the same land were worth but the Government price of $1.25 an acre,
it might be better to make a new purchase in the neighborhood, than to
expend ten times its value on a tract that cannot be worth the cost of
the operation. Drainage is an expensive operation, requiring much labor
and capital, and not to be thought of in a pioneer settlement by
individual emigrants. It comes after clearing, after the building of
log-houses and mills, and schoolhouses, and churches, and roads, when
capital and labor are abundant, and when the good lands, nature-drained,
have been all taken up.

And, again, whether drainage is profitable, depends not only on the
value, but on the character of the soil as to productiveness when
drained. There is much land that would be improved by drainage, that
cannot be profitably drained. It would improve almost any land in New
England to apply to it a hundred loads of stable manure to the acre; but
whether such application would be profitable, must depend upon the
returns to be derived from it. Horace Greeley, who has his perceptions
of common affairs, and especially of all that relates to progress, wide
awake, said, in an address at Peekskill, N. Y.:

"My deliberate judgment is, that all lands which are worth plowing,
which is not the case with all lands that are plowed, would _be
improved_ by draining; but I know that our farmers are neither able
nor ready to drain to that extent, nor do I insist that it would
pay while land is so cheap, and labor and tile so dear as at
present. Ultimately, I believe, we shall tile-drain nearly all our
level, or moderately sloping lands, that are worth cultivation."

Whether land would be _improved_ by drainage, is one question, and
whether the operation will _pay_, is quite another. The question whether
it will pay, depends on the value of the land before drainage, the cost
of the operation, and the value of the land when completed. And the cost
of the operation includes always, not only the money and labor expended
in it, but also the loss to other land of the owner, by diverting from
it the capital which would