The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-05-22
HOUSEHOLD AND FARM.
An Essay by WI. Chamberlain, of SUNNI
County, OHIO.
DOES TILE.DRAINAGE PAY:
From the Chicago Tribune,
OEnurlLLHlh from INT Irrfkl

From the Chicago Tribune.
(CoHciudcd trom last Weeh9
But, says an unbelleving neighhor, those
tiles will be apt To crumblc In n few years, or
. fill up with dirt. | answer on John Johnston's
farm they have endured well for thirty years,
and on II. p, Williams land, as some of You
know, they nave been down fifteen years, and
are still rs good rs new. | have had frequent
occasion To dig down 10 main drains, take up
length of tile and JON II lateral, and have in.
variahly found these tiles rs hard and solid rs
when put down, and rs clean and free from
sediment as If they had been just washed.
These main drains have been down from seven
to thirteen years, and If no crumbling or stop
page appears IN that time, see no reason why
they will not last AS well Fifty or 100 years, or
500 years, provided they are below frost, and
the outlets are properly cleared and protected.
In short not only believe II rW poy to t'ic.
drain our clay lands, but that we cannot afford
to neglect this work much longer
The following was written for and published
recently in the ohio Farmer;
ECONOMY IN DOING THE WORK.
This Is an important matter for those OF us
| SWho live 10y farming Mess we can make
tiledraining pay in dollars and cents, we can
not drain at all. We nave no bank or outside
business to draw on for fancy improvements
OF any kind firmly believe that IT Will pay
tons of our ciaycy farms of Ohio, and even Of
the black soil farms of the Sanduslly and To.
| ledo regions provided We can do ii with little
| cash outlay except for the tiles These will
cost about $l3 to $l5 per acre for twoinch lat
erals, ard the necessary proportion of three
and four inch main drains
Now how can we dig, lay, and fill the drains
| without much actual outlay? Under this head
give the result of considerable experience in
Il, Il. III, In1t
teen years with my own hands, ana with .,
very lean pockct-bCok.
l. Dram at seasons of the year when labor
Is cheap and othOr work is not pressing. |
need not enlarge on this. 1t will come mp in
cldcntally elsewhere, and seems almost self
evident.
.. Plan and prepare long enough before
hand. Have proper crops preceding ana iol-
lowing the draining. Never drain turf and
leave 1t tulf after drainage Some hoed crop
is best to prccede the work, rs it leaves the
subsol more moist and mellow, and Il late.
sowed spring crop, like Hungarian grass, Is
best to follow the work. This will leave the
entire time from, say, Nov, ! to May 10 TO de-
N1te to the draining, when the weather and
other farm work permit | should never adj
wise draining earlier in the fall or much later
in the spring than this, as the subsoll Is sci
dom moist enough to dig well, and other work
is too pressing.
3. Law ont the work with the team. In
most fields the laterals can he made (most OF
them at least to run parallel with one SIDE OF
the field. In that case the elC may be pioWtd
that way, in lands two rods wide, with very
deep dead burrows; and the places for iatcras
are already marked out Then If a single FUR
row is ploWed in the bottom of each, the ditch
es are nearly hall dug, and tive courses with
the spade will sink them plumb three feet
deep The blowing in lands need not be-
charged us an expense in ditChing If you
don't believe in fail blowing, plow the land
thus the preceding spring, before planting the
hoed crops and run the single deep turrow
in each dead furrOw Just before dtChlng. You
thus get more than "a foot dug for almost moth
ing. If any latCralS or mains cannot be made
to run with the dead burrows, a single deep
turrow, or plowIng once back and forth in the
same place Will do.
The tiles are best bought in large quantities
and distributed on the field IN plies of 33 or G6
each, at two or four rods apart, before the
ground grows too soft in the fall. Then the
work can proceed all winter whenever there Is
not too much frost, snow or rain.
In the catching weather Of fall, winter ana
spring with snow, frost and rain, begin al
the lower end and finish lay and partly fill
close up to the digging. II we dig aud trim
and dress up" the main and all the Iateras
before laying any tiles, heavy ram or hard
frost and thaw may cave IN our drains, undo
our weldone work, and make our task almost
intermnable | have therefore, usually made
it practice to lay out the work with plow,
as described in the fall make my outlet, and
then work up the main drain, laying the tile
and filling and tramplng at least foot, near
" as fast as the digging Is done, certainly
catching up close each night, or when astorm
comes on to interrupt As | pass the place
for each lateral, dig some clgIt or ten feet oi
the lateral from the junction to the main, lap
and cover eight or ten feet of the lateral, and
put a straw "wad" in the upper end of the lat
eral, similar to a straw bung put INTO cider
barrel though not driven tight. This admits
water rather slowly and excludes dIt. | then
90 on with the main drain to the next lateral
Law that in the same way, and 50 on up the
whole ascent of the main drain. | have at the
present Ilme main, laid since Nov. 20 thirty
five rods long and with seventeen latCraS thus
Joined to it, The latcrals are over fifty rods
long, and have nearly flushed four of them
besides the main alone only hiring an occa
sional DAYS work The unfinished ones will
be finished one after another all winter, as We
have ANY kind of weather. | shall hire more
or less help all along as the weather is iavora
bic and in the spring put IN three or four men
and finish up the rest IN hurry.
This will give about eleven or twelve acres
with drains thirty-three feet apart and three
feet deep as my stint TIL pressing spring
work interrupts. Where there Is no crop on
the ground the bitches, if filled and thorough
" packed above the tile for eighteen inches
may be left TIL it is dry enough in spring, and
(then the rest of the dirt can be plowed in very
rapidly with team.
Now. an open Ohio winter like tac present
permits much OF this work to be done at very
little actual cash outlay except for the tile, and
makes farmer feel as If he was accomplish.
ing something" am quite sure ii is more
profitable than sitting around" in village
inn