Counting The Cost

Categories: DRAINAGE

Thorough underdrainage is costly, but it is less so

than the farming of fields whose productiveness is seriously limited by

an excess of water. The work means an added investment. Estimates of

cost can be made with fair accuracy, and estimates of resulting profit

can be made without any assurance of accuracy. The farmer with some wet

land does well to gain experimental knowledge, and base future work

upon such experien e. He knows that he cannot afford to cultivate wet

land, and the problem before him is to leave it to produce what grass

it can produce, sell it, or find profit in drainage. He has the

experience of others that investment in drainage is more satisfactory

than most other investments, if land has any natural fertility. He has

assurance that debt incurred for drainage is the safest kind of debt an

owner of wet land can incur. He has a right to expect profit from the

undertaking, and he can begin the work in a small way, if an outlet is

at hand, and learn what return may be expected from further investment.

Almost without fail will he become an earnest advocate of

underdrainage.