FARM DRAINAGE.

By MR. JOEL RICHARDSON, Newport.

Read at an Institute held at Buxton, December 11, 1891

Draining is the first step in any good system of farming. It deepens the soil, lengthens the season for labor and vegetation, precludes the necessity of replanting, promotes the absorption of fertilizers, admits air to the roots of plants, and, although at first thought it appears absurd, tends to prevent drouth. These facts are established beyond doubt by many experiments. It deepens the soil by allowing the air and roo's of plants to go much deeper than when it is full of water, both of which assist in decomposing and pulverizing the hard sub-soil and making the elements of plant food available. It lengthens the season by removing water earlier in spring so as to bring the soil in good condition to plow and plant much earlier and is not so much injured by fall rains It promotes the absorption of fertilizers by making the soil more porous. admits air which is absolutely necessary to roots of all plants, except those known as water plants, few of which are of value to farmers. It increases the warmth of the soil by more readily absorbing the heat of the sun, it also prevents the cooling effect of evaporation of stagnant water from the surface. In the northern states with short seasons the warmth of the soil is an important factor in plant growth. It tends to prevent drouth by making the soil more porous and allowing the roots to go deeper for moisture when the surface becomes dry. Moisture will also rise by capillary attraction through porous soil much better than when it is dense.

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Swampy lands must be drained or remain useless to the owners. These are usually our most productive lands when properly drained. Each farmer must be his own judge as to whether it will pay to drain. But do not decide the case before you investigate and get all the evidence for and against that you can obtain, for if you do you will be likely to decide against your own interest because it is much easier to let drains alone. High lands holding too much water at any part of the growing season should be drained, as most useful plants are drowned by being covered by water even for a few days and by the roots standing in water. Undulating lands through which are many crooked wet runs which cannot be plowed when the

rest of the field is ready should be drained, for by so doing they are ready for the plow as early in spring as the high lands around them and as they have been receiving the wash from the lands above them they are much richer in plant food. Indications of too much water in grass lands are growths of rushes and water weeds; in grain and corn lands, small sickly looking plants. Drains on nearly level lands having a slope in only one direction should be laid directly down the slope. But on a valley sloping inward and downward one main drain through the lowest part with side drains coming in from each side is better than several long drains. A fall of one inch in a rod is sufficient and a fall of two inches is better than more. The fall should be as uniform as the nature of the ground will permit. Ways and means of grading the bottom of the drains will be explained further on. There are three modes of draining to which I wish to call your attention. Each has its merits on lands of different kinds and values, surface drains, under drains of stone, and under drains of tile pipe. Surface draining should be done only when the nature or value of the land will not permit of better but more expensive methods of underdraining. It is often necessary to make temporary drains to remove water from spots in fields we wish to plow in spring, also often through the growing season after heavy rains. Surface drains may be made to remove water from low places in pastures so as to produce feed where there would be nothing but bushes but which would not warrant the expense of a good under drain.

Very flat lands can be best drained by plowing in beds so as to leave wide open drains. Such lands even if provided with good under drains cannot carry off the winter rains when the ground is frozen. If such lands are not provided with surface drains the winter rains will freeze over the surface and the ice excluding the air kills out the grass.

There are several objections to surface drains, some of which are serious obstructions to driving over the fields. They generally grow a crop of weeds to seed the adjoining lands and are continually carrying off with their waters the finest and best particles of soil which they drain.

Deep, well constructed under drains are subject to none of the above objections: The water falling on the surface percolates slowly through the soil to the bottom of the drains giving up to the roots of plants and the spongy soil its ammonia, carbonic acid and other

elements of plant food as it passes downward and is followed by air, bringing other plant food which is also given up to the roots and soil. Stone drains may be made on farms where small stones are abundant without any cash expense and the work be done by the farmer and his team between haying and fall harvest without interfering with regular work of the farm. A stone drain if well constructed will do good service for indefinite time. I have such drains doing good service now that were laid twenty-five years ago and I can see no reason why they may not for a hundred years to come. Depth of drains should not be less than three feet, and four is better, so as to be entirely below the plow and the frost, as anything that disturbs the soil near the bottom is likely to obstruct the drain. Drains down steep slopes are liable to be injured by slight obstructions or excess of water backing up and producing pressure enough to burst upward, which leaves a hole, and as the water falls away the earth washes downward and stops the drain. As to distance between drains the rules laid down by most writers are discouraging.

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If as they say drains must be within twenty or thirty feet of each other, there is but little land of sufficient value in this State to pay for draining. But I have nearly a mile of stone drain doing good service and know that there is no need of drains being so near. course the depth of the drains has much to do with the distance which they will draw the water. In loam soils a three and one-half feet drain is sufficient for four rods on each side. In dense stiff clays of course they must be nearer. On lands which receive much water from other lands above, one head drain across the upper part of the field with a drain from the lowest point of such head draic down the slope will entirely change the condition of the whole field below. If a drain will draw four rods on each side, twenty rods of such drain will drain an acre. There are few situations or soils which cannot be well drained by forty rods. The cost of drains differs widely from different degrees of hardness in digging, different facilities for filling, different sizes of drain required to accommodate the flow of different volumes of water and also in the judgment and push of the men who make them.

With me the average cost of stone drain has been about one dollar per rod. Where land is cheap forty dollars per acre seems a large sum to lay out in draining. But that sum is often expended in moving stone from an acre which does not make the land more productive, while draining does.