up

one at top and one at bottom, making a pipe nine inches. bore to discharge water. At first, he had many to take and replace with large pipe to secure a complete discharge. Main drains he makes six to eight inches deeper than those emptying into them—not with an abrupt shoulder, but leveled up, so that the descent may take place gradually in the length of two tiles-29 inches—and always giving the laterals a slight sidewise direction at the end, so that their water will be discharged down stream into the mains.

"Another error he at first fell into was, in having too many drains on lowlands, and not enough on the upland; thus seeking to carry off the effect, while the cause— -the out-cropping springs on the hill-side-remained untouched. Where the source of the water is most abundant, the means for removing it should most abundantly be furnished. Rainwater falls on hills, sinks to an impervious stratum, along which it runs until it either finds a porous section through which it can fall to a lower level, or not finding such, continues on the hard bottom to the side of the hill, where it crops out in the form of a spring. If this spring-water is suffered to run down hill, it washes the hill-side more or less, and coming to the lowland, sinks as far as it may into the soil, makes it sodden, and produces bad effects. To drain effectually, then, we must cut off the supply above, and fewer drains will be necessary below. Here is the whole secret of the thing, and here we see why so much money is spent to so little purpose by those who think that they should only drain the wet lowland. Appearances are deceitful, and we should not suppose that a seemingly dry upland is really dry."

Comment on such a character and such a history as this is superfluous. Mr. Johnston's example as a tiledrainer has been of inestimable value to American

farmers. As how such a man feeds his cattle and manufactures manure, must be interesting to many, the following additional extract on that subject is given:

"A word as to this most important subject. On poor lands good crops are got by the use of much manure. This all know. But do they know as well that all manure is not equally good; that a cord of it that has been leached by drenching rains throughout fall and winter, and that has been shone upon by the sun through a hundred hot days, has lost the greater part of its efficacy? That the rivulets of brown liquor that run from the barn-yard into the public road will make more wheat than the brownwashed straw which remains? And that, be manure never so well cared for, its value may be increased at will by the food given to the animals that make it? If they don't, Mr. Johnston does; and so, instead of freezing his stock until they are almost in articulo mortis, and starving them on dry stocks and refuse hay until the bones well nigh pierce the skin, he has comfortable sheds and deeply-littered yards for his cattle, and feeds them well at regular intervals with sweet hay, oil-cake, bean-meal, and grain. The resultbut what other could you expect?-is, that in spring they are in store condition; he loses none, has no disease among them, saves a large quantity of such manure that one cord of it will bring more wheat or corn than four of ordinary dung, and he grows rich. Reader, if you desire to be a good farmer, go and do likewise !"

CHAPTER VII.

Getting the first thousand dollars-How to save-Man wants but little here below-Actual cost of food-Great successes-A dime a day.

ECONOMY is the sheet-anchor of every beginner, no matter what calling he may adopt. Without it, industry and hard work go for almost nothing. As a general rule, men more frequently grow rich from what they save than from what they make. In farming, especially, it may be assumed that this rule has no exceptions. Our actual bodily wants are few, and may be cheaply supplied without converting us into a race of misers. In illustration of these positions I have gathered from various sources some facts sufficiently striking to command general attention, even if they should be found too hard to imitate.

The greatest fortunes have originated in the smallest beginnings. Stephen Girard, the millionaire of Philadelphia, began the world by selling oranges from the head of a barrel in the streets of an obscure country town. His remark in after life was, that when a man had acquired his first thousand dollars, there was no difficulty in becoming rich. John Jacob Astor began his wonderful career

of prosperity by buying the skins of skunks and musk-rats. He is reported to have said that it cost him more severe effort to get the first thousand dollars, than all the others.

Mr. Edwin T. Freedley has written much and well on all these subjects. He says, referring to Astor, that,

"If he had bequeathed to mankind an easy and certain method of overcoming the difficulty, the bequest would have been a far more valuable one than all his fortune; entitling him to the most conspicuous niche in the gallery of the world's benefactors. The task, however, was beyond his powers, as it has proved too vast for abler men. Franklin attempted to teach the true secret of money-catching-the certain way to fill empty pockets—with what success we have seen. Millionaires have favored the world with their dicta and opinions; but the world has not attached any great importance to their sayings, and certainly not been much benefited by their observations. Mankind generally have probably abandoned the idea of discovering a royal road to wealth, and concluded that an individual, or nation, in order to accumulate capital, must earn something by labor, and then save a portion of the product. Something, however, may be done and a good deal more than has been doneto facilitate this accumulation; to show labor how, without extra exertion, it can increase its rewards; and show economy how, without injury to the physical system, less be consumed."

may

Mr. Freedley has gone largely and thoroughly into all the details of the question as to how to get the first thousand dollars. He tells us—

"First, How TO SAVE. The human mind receives its first practical lessons in the realities of life at a very early

period. The child is initiated and instructed in one of the fundamental principles of social science when he discovers that he cannot purchase a cake and also keep his pennythat he must forego the one or part with the other. As a corollary from the proposition, he then comprehends that, to keep his pennies, he must deny himself cakes; and thus, by involuntary deduction, he arrives at a fundamental principle of economy, viz.: self-denial in expenditures for personal gratification. The limit to which it is possible to carry this self-denial without injury to health, or diminution of power for production, is somewhat remarkable. The cost of what are absolute and actual necessaries of life is, in most countries, comparatively little-as is evidenced in cases where stern necessity affixes the bounds of possible expenditure. In France, for instance, there are tens of thousands of peasants and of operatives whose daily earnings do not exceed ten cents, and yet they contrive to live gayly on that sum. As a consequence, in no other country has the art of cookery made equal progress. In Paris, an enterprising woman, Madame Robert, furnishes a dinner daily to six thousand workmen for two pence each, her bill of fare being cabbage soup, a slice of boiled beef, a piece of bread, and a glass of wine. In our Southern States, the food of the chief laborers-the men who at one time produced an export value of over two hundred millions of dollars per annum in cotton, sugar, tobacco, and rice-did not probably cost their providers ten cents per day.

In

"The full allowance for a laboring man and woman—one that toils all the hours of daylight in the field-is a peck and a half of corn meal, and three pounds of fat bacon. the Cotton States, the average price of the corn is about seventy-five cents a bushel, and the price of bacon eight cents a pound. This would make the weck's rations cost fifty-six cents. At still higher rates it would not be a