Having a small piece of stiff soil, about half an acre, (clay loam on a clay sub-soil,) near my farm-house, which lay in a dishing shape, and of course catching and holding the water flowing on to it from the contiguous grounds, and in a spot where I wanted fruit trees to stand, after thoroughly manuring and ploughing it, I planted it in apple, pear, plum and cherry trees, for house use, and laid it into grass. I didn't look at the condition of the land as I should have done, and paid no attention to draining it; yet I dug well around the trees every year, to promote their growth. Although well planted and tended, the trees did not grow well, and the English cherries all but one, several in number, died out, with the single exception of two, and they stood still, barely holding their own. The others made small growth, and bore a little fruit, but even that little in number was small in size. Suspecting the cause, I made two or three small open drains about a foot deep, across the piece, but it was no go.

The trees refused to progress, and were becoming stunted and mossy.

Last fall I went thoroughly to work and opened ditches two and a half feet deep, three feet wide at the top, and one foot at bottom, thirty to forty feet apart, laying the ground into beds, and leading the water as it fell or stood upon the ground, entirely away. The trees found it out as quick as I did, and they have now, the very first season after being relieved of that cold stagnant water in the soil, already made more growth than in the three last years before.

Trees of any kind - not water trees - must have a dry and warm soil to grow luxuriantly; and if the soil on which they are wanted to stand be cold, wet and clammy, thorough draining will warm it. I have orchard trees now standing, where the year before they were planted was a low swale, but dried by cutting a good ditch through it, and they are the thriftiest trees in the field. One cause no doubt is, that the swale soil is the richest, but before it was drained fruit trees would not grow in it; standing water was upon it for two-thirds of the year, and it yielded nothing but water grass and bushes. An expense of five or ten dollars in ditching has relieved the entire difficulty, and given the best possible soil for a hundred trees to luxuriate, and grow, and rejoice as laughingly as so many frolicking colts in a summer pasture, besides yielding as good crops as any of the adjoining upland- Ditch, ditch, bitch, your cold and clammy soils for tree planting!