Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-08-28
Draining.

The sight OF car load of drain tile.
which is being carried past by our neigh
bors, reminds US to urge again the imppr-
lance of draining and the profit to BIT
found from it.
On almost every farm we see are low.
wet lands, unless the owners have had an
attack of draining fever; in that case they
may be all drained already. for when once
the fever gets a fair hold it goes pretty
thoroughly, as we can testify.
On many farms these swamps are neal
the buildings, and being in their present
condition of no value. are growing up t,
flags, bushes and coarse grasses, Will,
some side hill of their well worn soil, at a
distance from the barn, is worked over
year after year, laid down to grass which
runs out soon, and then again receives
what manure can be spared, and the sam,
round again gone over. Take, for instance
the case of neighbor. His buildings ar,
on a gentle eastern slope, where most Of
his tillable land lies; his pasture on the
other side pitching to the west, and the
little valley between, of several acres in
extent, is in just the condition named,-
swamp, parts of which are too wet for any
use, and parts where small crop of poor,
Coarse hay is cut with much labor, as no
machinery can be used, so all moving.
etc., has to be done by hand. And this
lies within ten rods of his barn, and little
dtching, for which he would have an easy
outlet on to a dry side hill below, would
reclaim the whole to good, dry, tillable
land, which would give double or treble
benefit for manure applied, over the dry
hill sides where his manure is now chiefly
used
How many farms are there in central
Vermont where no such chance for profit
abe improvement exists? How many
farms which have no spots which cannot
be plowed by reason of wet, or if plowed
show only poor stunted growth, and
soon grow only poor, coarse grass?
Draining would make such land among
the most valuable if not the very best on
the farm, as we know from experience,
for one piece we have which used to yield
about four loads of stuff,-wide leafed
grass brakes, etc.-last year gave fourteen
loads of as good hay as one would wish.
WHERE TO DRAIN.
1t is well, before beginning your bitches,
to avail yourself of the experience of some
one who has tried draining with success,
but if none be handy to whom you can
refer, then it will generally be safe to dig
yolr ditch where the water is. We made
mistake or two by thinking we could cut
Of the water below by digging the ditch
above and carrying the water across dry
ground to where we wished the outlet.
There may be an exception to this general
rule, when the bog to be drained lies at
the foot of hills where the water drains in
and collects in the level land at the bot
tom. In such case ditch put along at
the edge of the bog will, by cutting of the
supply of water, render the whole dry and
the work be done; but if springs rise in
tn bog the water from them must be led
away to make the work com plete. Whether
there be springs can be determined after
the surrounding ditch is done, and had
time to let the bog dry out.
HOW To DRAIN
If your moving has lots of stone heaps,
or your pasture near at hand has plenty of
stones Lying around loose" then we
should lay drain of stones to get rid of
them. laying stones along the side of the
ditch and covering them with larger ones
but if our land were free from stones, OF
what we had could be easily used for fence
and neighbor should offer to give us al
we wanted if we would draw them,-ther
we should put in tile if it could be found
near enough so the freight would not be
too high.
1t is generally more work to draw stone
and lay drain than it is to dig it, Will,
tile may be laid very rapidly, and it il
scarcely more than half the work to di!
the ditch, for the tile ditch may be marrow
while the stone drain to carry the sam
amount of water should be four times a
wide to make success reasonably sure.