Produced by Steven Giacomelli, Constanze Hofmann and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images produced by Core Historical Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) Transcriber's Note: The spelling in this text has been preserved as in the original. Obvious printer's errors have been corrected. You can find a list of the corrections made at the end of this e-text. * * * * * FARM DRAINAGE. THE PRINCIPLES, PROCESSES, AND EFFECTS OF DRAINING LAND WITH STONES, WOOD, PLOWS, AND OPEN DITCHES, AND ESPECIALLY WITH TILES; INCLUDING TABLES OF RAIN-FALL, EVAPORATION, FILTRATION, EXCAVATION, CAPACITY OF PIPES; COST AND NUMBER TO THE ACRE, OF TILES, &C., &C., AND MORE THAN 100 ILLUSTRATIONS. BY HENRY F. FRENCH. "READ, not to contradict and to confute, nor to believe and take for granted, but to weigh and consider."--BACON. "The first Farmer was the first man, and all nobility rests on the possession and use of land."--EMERSON. NEW YORK: C. M. SAXTON, BARKER & CO., AGRICULTURAL BOOK PUBLISHERS, No. 25 PARK ROW 1860. ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, BY HENRY F. FRENCH, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the Southern District of New York. TO The Honorable Simon Brown, of MASSACHUSETTS, A LOVER OF AGRICULTURE, AND A PROGRESSIVE FARMER, WHOSE WORDS AND WORKS ARE SO WELL DEVOTED TO IMPROVE THE CONDITION OF THOSE WHO CULTIVATE THE EARTH, THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED, AS A TESTIMONIAL OF RESPECT AND PERSONAL ESTEEM, BY HIS FRIEND AND BROTHER, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. The Agriculture of America has seemed to me to demand some light upon the subject of Drainage; some work, which, with an exposition of the various theories, should give the simplest details of the practice, of draining land. This treatise is an attempt to answer that demand, and to give to the farmers of our country, at the same time, enough of scientific principles to satisfy intelligent inquiry, and plain and full directions for executing work in the field, according to the best known rules. It has been my endeavor to show what lands in America require drainage, and how to drain them best, at least expense; to explain how the theories and the practice of the Old World require modification for the cheaper lands, the dearer labor, and the various climate of the New; and, finally, to suggest how, through improved implements and processes, the inventive genius of our country may make the brain assist and relieve the labor of the hand. With some hope that my humble labors, in a field so broad, may not have entirely failed of their object, this work is offered to the attention of American farmers. H. F. F. THE PINES, EXETER, N. H., March, 1859. LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.