The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1884-08-16
FARM TOPICS.
Experiments in Draining Small
Swamps and Stagnant Ponds.
Profits in Cattle Raising.
Raising Hardwood Timber From
Seed.--An English Method OF
Packing Butter.
EXPERIMENTS IN DRAINING.

Small ponds and swamps often owe
their origin to the formation of crust
of iron and other substances with clay
and sand. II this hard deposit is broken
the water, il the earth below is CON-
posed of gravel, will sink into the
ground. A Georgia correspondent OF
the New York Sun gives the result of
some experiments made in that state
in draining swamps through openings
into the earth. He write as follows:
The great drawback of Florida,
Louisiana, the rice sections of South
Carolina, and Georgia has been the fact
that white men could not live there on
account OF bracksh drinking water
and malaria inseparable from floods
and swamps. Several years since Col.
Fort, who owns much property of this
description, conceived the idea of sink
ing artesan wells, holding that when a
certain stratum was reached pure
water could be obtained in abundance
His efforts were crowned with such
success that every town in Southern
Georgia is sinking artesian wells. The
water is perfectly clear, sweet, and
pure as the best to be found in the
highlands. This success led Col. Fort
to try the experiment of draining stag
nant ponds by running them off through
subterranean passages that are known
to exist at distance of from seventy
to one hundred feet below the surface.
Col. Forts experiment was made on
his hickory level plantation. IN Dough-
erty county. and the pond on which he
experimental is situated about two
hundred yards from his pioneer arte-
sian well. The pond covered an area
of about two acres, with depth of ten
feet in the center. To drain il thor
oughly an outlet must be made in the
deepest part. To accomplish this, Col.
Fort bound four substantial pieces of
tim Der together, hoated them over the
center of the pond, and upon this foun-
dation built his raft or pen which sank
as it was added to. When the raft had
been built, the foundation resting on
the bottom of the pond, the platform
was placed across the top, and on this
platform derrick was set up TO this
derrick boring apparatus was attached.
At first pile-driver was used, but
when the pipe had been driven down
through the bottom of the pond to a
depth of thirty feet, it rested on solid
rock, and then the work of drilling and
boring was begun.
At depth of fifty feet below the bot
tom of the pond the drill struck an
opening, and at once the water COM
menced to sing with a roar through
the big pipe, the top of which was only
few inches under water. The drill
pipe was drawn out, and the pond
commenced to empty itself as fast as
the orifice that the drill had made
through the rocks would permit the
water to flow. When the water in the
pond was level with the top of the pipe,
reamer was attached to the drill pipe
and sent down to open the way for the
big pipe to be sunk deeper. In this
way the pipe was sunk until joint of
two sections was almost level with the
bottom of the pond, and there it was
unjointed.
Col. Ford will have square pit dug
around the pipe, and the pipe will be
driven down to level with the bottom
of this pit. The top of the pipe will be
covered with wire to keep trash out,
and the pit will be filled with rocks,
and thus the drain will be kept open.
This strange scheme of emptying the
pond into subterranean channels has
been witnessed by hundreds of people,
who see in it the reclamation of the
millions of acres of swamp lands in the
south. Thus, within two hundred feet
of each other were two pipes-that of
the artesian well throwing up the
purest of drinking water, and that in
the middle of the pond sucking stag
nant water into the bowels of the earth
and carrying it away. The experiment
only cost $75, while there was gained
from it over two thousand tons of COM
post soil