The drained field represented in the plan (Fig. 102), contains about eight acres. I purchased it in 1846. The upper part of it is sand, with underlying clay at depths of from four to ten feet. The field slopes towards the river, and, on the slope, the clay strata coming out to the surface, naturally bring out the water, so that the side hill was so wet as to produce cranberries--quite too wet for any hoed crop. At the foot of the hill the soil is a stiff clay, with veins of sand and gravel. Through the centre was a wet ravine, which served as a natural outlet for the springs, and which was so full of black alders as to make an excellent cover for woodcock. Until the land was drained, this ravine was impassable in the hay season even, except by a bridge which I built across it. Now it may be crossed at any season and at any point. I first attempted to drain the wettest parts with brush drains, running them into the wet places merely, and succeeded in drying the land sufficiently to afford good crops of hay. I laid one brush-drain across the brow of the hill, five feet deep, hoping to cut off all the water, which I supposed ran along upon the surface of the clay. This dried the land for a few rods, but the water still ruined the lower parts of the field, and the drain produced very little effect upon the land above it. In 1856, finding my brush drains quite insufficient, I thorough-drained the side-hill on the lower part of the plan at the reader's left hand, at fifty feet distances, up and down the slope, at an average of about four feet depth, going five feet deep on the brow of the hill, to cut through the brush-drain. I used two-inch sole-tiles for minors, and three-inch for the main. The effect was instantaneous. The land which, in the Spring of 1856, had been so wet that it could not, even though partially drained with brush-drains, be planted till the 5th of June, was, in 1857, ready to work as soon as the snow was off. My farm journal says, under date of April 6th, "plowed drained land with double plow two days after a heavy storm--dry enough." I spent that Summer in Europe. The land was planted with corn, which produced a heavy crop. I find an entry in my journal, on my return, "My drained land has been in good condition--neither too wet nor too dry--all Summer."