From Henry F. French. Farm Drainage. 1859, p. 88. regarding whether the
tile-draining of farm land (and, for French, cellars) was could return the
investment. French and Greely were in agreement:

"Horace Greely, who has his perceptions of common affairs, and especially
of all that relates to progress, wide awake, said, in an address at
Peekskill, N.Y.:

'My deliberate judgment is, that all lands which are worth plowing, which
is not the case with all lands that are plowed, would be improved by
draining: but I know that our farmers are neither able nor ready to drain
to that extent, nor do I insist that it would pay while land is so cheap,
and labor and tile so dear as at present. Ultimately, I believe, we shall
tile-drain nearly all our level, or moderately sloping lands, that are
worth cultivation.'

Whether the land would be improved by drainage, is one question, and
whether the operation will pay, is quite another."

At 11:48 AM 6/12/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Anne,
>
>Horace Greeley sounds like a pretty interesting fellow.  Born on the on the
>afore mentioned New Hampshire farm in 1811, he apprenticed at 15 to a Vermont
>printer, going on to found the New York Tribune as editor and prolific
writer.
>He was apparently regarded as something of an eccentric, but was
influential as
>an advocate of social reform and was much influenced by the French socialist
>Charles Fourier.  He even employed Karl Marx as a European correspondent
for the
>Tribune.  He advocated a range of causes including guaranteed employment,
>agricultural collectives, organized western expansion, and temperance.  He
was
>particularly known for his anti-slavery position.  The only time Greeley
served
>in the government was for 90 days in 1848, as a replacement for an
indicted U.S.
>congressman from New York City. He quickly lost favor with his colleagues for
>publicizing day-to-day Capitol dirt and printing exposes of legislative fraud
>and corruption. Covering Congress in 1855 as a reporter, he suffered a
>concussion from a caning by Speaker Albert Rust in reprisal for his
criticism of
>Rust's pro-slavery maneuvering.  Ironically, after the Civil War, he was much
>reviled for contributing to the fund to bail Jefferson Davis out of jail.
>Greeley was nominated as the 1872 Democratic candidate for President. He
lost by
>a landslide to the incumbent Ulysses S. Grant, and died one month later in a
>sanitarium.  He was a committed Unitarian/Univeralist, and would no doubt be
>pleased that the present inhabitants of his birthplace are active in the
>Unitarian church.
>A few choice quotations:
>Morality and religion are but words to those who crouch behind barrels in the
>street to cut the icy blasts, or fish in the gutters for the means to sustain
>life.
>Where Labor stands idle . . . there is a demonstrated deficiency, not of
>Capital, but of brains.
>This Daniel Boone business is about played out.
>The best women I know do not wish to vote. . . .but when a sincere
Republican is
>asked in sober earnest why we deny women suffrage, he must answer "for no
>reason." It must be acceded for it is the assertion of a natural right
>Sign anything, ratify anything, pay anything . . . There never was a good
war or
>a bad peace.
>Our country right or wrong is an evil motto--what if your country be in the
>wrong? It will only compound her injury.
>There's more on HG at an excellent web site
>http://www.honors.unr.edu/~fenimore/greeley.html from which I borrowed
>liberally.
>Lisa
>
>