otherwise be applied to it. Where labor and
capital are limited so closely as they are in all our new States, it is
a question not only how can they be profitably applied, but how can they
be _most_ profitably applied. A proprietor, who has money to loan at six
per cent. interest, may well invest it in draining his land; when a
working man, who is paying twelve per cent. interest for all the capital
he employs, might ruin himself by making the same improvement.

DO ALL LANDS REQUIRE DRAINAGE?

Our opinion is, that a great deal of land does not in any sense require
drainage, and we should differ with Mr. Greeley, in the opinion that
_all_ lands worth ploughing, would be improved by drainage. Nature has
herself thoroughly drained a large proportion of the soil. There is a
great deal of finely-cultivated land in England, renting at from five to
ten dollars per acre, that is thought there to require no drainage.

In a published table of estimates by Mr. Denton, made in 1855, it is
supposed that Great Britain, including England, Scotland, and Wales,
contain 43,958,000 acres of land, cultivated and capable of cultivation;
of which he sets down as "wet land," or land requiring drainage,
22,890,004 acres, or about one half the whole quantity. His estimate is,
that only about 1,365,000 acres had then been permanently drained, and
that it would cost about 107 millions of pounds to complete the
operation, estimating the cost at about twenty shillings, or five
dollars per acre.

These estimates are valuable in various views of our subject. They
answer with some definiteness the question so often asked, whether all
lands require drainage, and they tend to correct the impression, which
is prevalent in this country, that there is something in the climate of
Great Britain that makes drainage there essential to good cultivation on
any land. The fact is not so. There, as in America, it depends upon the
condition and character of the soil, more than upon the quantity of
rain, or any condition of climate, whether drainage is required or not.
Generally, it will be found on investigation, that so far as climate,
including of course the quantity and regularity of the rain-fall, is
concerned, drainage is more necessary in America than in Great
Britain--the quantity of rain being in general greater in America, and
far less regular in its fall. This subject, however, will receive a more
careful consideration in another place.

If in Ameri