sted in England for the last 20 years, they
would now be sold for one-half of their present price here, and the
manufacture would be more profitable.

There are many light lands on retentive subsoils, which could be drained,
at present prices, for $50 or less per acre, and there are others, which
are very hard to dig, on which thorough-draining could not now be done for
$60.

The cost and the promise of the operation in each instance, must guide the
land owner in deciding whether or not to undertake the improvement.

In doubtful cases, there is one compromise which may be safely made,--that
is, to omit each alternate drain, and defer its construction until labor
is cheaper.

This is doing half the work,--a very different thing from half-doing the
work. In such cases, the lines should be laid out as though they were to
be all done at once, and, finally, when the omitted drains are made, it
should be in pursuance of the original plan. Probably the drains which are
laid will produce more than one-half of the benefit that would result if
they were all laid, but they will rarely be satisfactory, except as a
temporary expedient, and the saving will be less than would at first seem
likely, for when the second drains are laid; the cultivation of the land
must be again interrupted; the draining force must be again brought
together; the levels of the new lines must be taken, and connected with
those of the old ones; and great care must be taken, selecting the dryest
weather for the work,--to admit very little, if any, muddy water into the
old mains.

This practice of draining by installments is not recommended; it is only
suggested as an allowable expedient, when the cost of the complete work
could not be borne with out inconvenience.

If any staid and economical farmer is disposed to be alarmed at the cost
of draining, he is respectfully reminded of the miles of expensive stone
walls and other fences, in New England and many other parts of the
country, which often are a real detriment to the farms, occupying, with
their accompanying bramble bushes and head lands, acres of valuable land,
and causing great waste of time in turning at the ends of short furrows in
plowing;--while they produce no benefit at all adequate to their cost and
annoyance.

It should also be considered that, just as the cost of fences is scarcely
felt by the farmer, being made when his teams and hands could not be
profitably employed in ordinary farm