of a very Bad Cellar described.--Drains Outside and Inside;
Illustration.

CHAPTER XXIII.

DRAINAGE OF SWAMPS.

Vast Extent of Swamp Lands in the United States.--Their
Soil.--Sources of their Moisture.--How to Drain them.--The Soil
Subsides by Draining.--Catch-water Drains.--Springs.--Mr. Ruffin's
Drainage in Virginia.--Is there Danger of Over-draining?

CHAPTER XXIV.

AMERICAN EXPERIMENTS IN DRAINAGE--DRAINAGE IN IRELAND.

Statement of B. F. Nourse, of Maine.--Statement of Shedd and Edson,
of Mass.--Statement of H. F. French, of New Hampshire.--Letter of
Wm. Boyle, Albert Model Farm, Glasnevin, Ireland.

INDEX.

FARM DRAINAGE.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Why this Treatise does not contain all Knowledge.--Attention of
Scientific Men attracted to Drainage.--Lieutenant Maury's
Suggestions.--Ralph Waldo Emerson's Views.--Opinions of J. H.
Klippart, Esq.; of Professor Mapes; B. P. Johnston, Esq.; Governor
Wright, Mr. Custis, &c.--Prejudice against what is
English.--Acknowledgements to our Friends at Home and Abroad.--The
Wants of our Farmers.

A Book upon Farm Drainage! What can a person find on such a subject to
write a book about? A friend suggests, that in order to treat any one
subject fully, it is necessary to know everything and speak of
everything, because all knowledge is in some measure connected.

With an earnest endeavor to clip the wings of imagination, and to keep
not only on the earth, but to burrow, like a mole or a sub-soiler, _in_
it, with a painful apprehension lest some technical term in Chemistry or
Philosophy should falsely indicate that we make pretensions to the
character of a scientific farmer, or some old phrase of law-Latin should
betray that we know something besides agriculture, and so, are not
worthy of the confidence of practical men, we have, nevertheless, by
some means, got together more than a bookfull of matter upon our
subject.

Our publisher says our book must be so large, and no larger--and we all
know that an author is but as a grasshopper in the hands of his
publisher, and ought to be very thankful to be allowed to publish his
book at all. So we have only to say, that if there is any chapter in
this book not sufficiently elaborate, or any subject akin to that of
drainage, that ought to have been embraced in our plan and is not, it is
because we ha