oughly under-drained, produce, on
the average of years, at least double their present crop.

Mr. John Johnston, a venerable Scotch farmer, who has long been a
successful cultivator in the Wheat region of Western New York,--and who was
almost the pioneer of tile-draining in America,--has laid over 50 miles of
drains within the last 30 years. His practice is described in Klippart's
Land Drainage, from which work we quote the following:

"Mr. Johnston says he never saw 100 acres in any one farm, but a portion
of it would pay for draining. Mr. Johnston is no rich man who has carried
a favorite hobby without regard to cost or profit. He is a hardworking
Scotch farmer, who commenced a poor man, borrowed money to drain his land,
has gradually extended his operations, and is now reaping the benefits, in
having crops of 40 bushels of wheat to the acre. He is a gray-haired
Nestor, who, after accumulating the experience of a long life, is now, at
68 years of age, written to by strangers in every State of the Union for
information, not only in drainage matters, but all cognate branches of
farming. He sits in his homestead, a veritable Humboldt in his way,
dispensing information cheerfully through our agricultural papers and to
private correspondents, of whom he has recorded 164 who applied to him
last year. His opinions are, therefore, worth more than those of a host of
theoretical men, who write without practice." * * * * *

"Although his farm is mainly devoted to wheat, yet a considerable area of
meadow and some pasture has been retained. He now owns about 300 acres of
land. The yield of wheat has been 40 bushels this year, and in former
seasons, when his neighbors were reaping 8, 10, or 15 bushels, he has had
30 and 40." * * * * *

"Mr. Johnston says tile-draining pays for itself in two seasons, sometimes
in one. Thus, in 1847, he bought a piece of 10 acres to get an outlet for
his drains. It was a perfect quagmire, covered with coarse aquatic
grasses, and so unfruitful that it would not give back the seed sown upon
it. In 1848 a crop of corn was taken from it, which was measured and found
to be _eighty bushels_ per acre, and as, because of the Irish famine, corn
was worth $1 per bushel that year, this crop paid not only all the expense
of drainage, but the first cost of the land as well.

"Another piece of 20 acres, adjoining the farm of the late John Delafield,
was wet, and would never bring more than 10 bushels of corn per