The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-10-10
Drains Without Outlets.

cultivated land was drained with tiles,
wherever it was wet enough to need it
and where there was sufficient fall.
thought so at the time, but have found
since that was mistaken. When the
drains were put in, it was the intention
TO do thorough job once for all; but
some wet places were lett which we did
not then know of, and some which we
did not suppose it possible, or st least
practicable, to drain. Now, as fast as
the lots come around in the rotation to
go into potatoes again, we are finishing
the draining.
Last spring, as soon as the frost was
out of the ground, we went. to work on
one lot-a clover and timothy sod about
to be broken up for potatoes-and fin
ished it by the time it was dry enough
to pillow. There was one spot of about
half an acre on which previous crop
of potatoes had been Injured bv a
heavy rain in June. The yield was
probably decreased fifty bushels, and
still the land was a mellow, gravelly
loan, which one would hardly think
could need any draining Beginning
at the point where the main drain of
the lot came nearest to this spot, we
dug ditch up through it. The SUBJ
soil was graveIly, but full of water. at
the lowest side, we found a sort of dam
of clay and gravel which was very hard
and dry. No water seemed to get
through it. The mystery was ex-
planned. There was sort of ''pocket"
or saucer in the clay beneath, which
held water long enough to injure pota-
tatoes, and, in very wet season, wheat
and clover. We let it stand open until
the water had nearly drained off, and
then put in the tiles and filled it up.
About three hundred tiles, costing three
dollars, will prevent potatoes being IN
Jured on that spot again. Several 9TH
er smaller spots were treated in SINH
lar way. In only one instance were we
baked in our attempts to find the water
and remedy the difficulty. One ditch
was dry one, and something beside
water was the troubles!
The most of this lot was rolling
ground, but around the lower edges Of
the hills were several small, wet spots,
which we had not supposed could be
underdTained successfully for lack of
fall. And another trouble was, that if
tiles could have boen put in very shat
low, there would have been o number
Of different outlets to look after and
keep open, which we did not fancy; so
we determined to drain these spots and
not have any outlets to the drains. The
drains were dug, beginning some two
rods out in the light mucky soil of the
bottom land. This bottom l&nd, which
is used for pasture only, is drained by
open bitches about a foot deep. We
dug down some eighteen inches or two
feet there, and deeper as we got into
the cultivated land, 50 as to give the
bottom of the ditch a very slight fall.
After bailing out the water, the tiles
were put in and the ditch filled UP. In
this way, we drained these wet spots to
the level of the water in the bottom
land, and have no trouble with outlets.
The cost was but tribe; one crop of
potatoes will more than pay for it,
Some one may think these drains will
fill up with sediment at the lower end
after time. They may, but think /
shall get my pay for the job several
times over first. And then, to guard
against this trouble, we put larger tiles
at The lower end, and in one case a box
six inches square made of four boards
sixteen feet long. Openings enough to let
the water soak out were left, of course.
If the drains should have to be taken
up and cleaned. out once in five or ten
years, it would be less trouble than to
keep the outlets clean for Eordinary
drains. The first spot (half an acre)
that spoke of, [ think could have been
drained in the same way, if there had
not been main drain near by. When
once an outlet was cut through the
hard pan that held the water back, and
tiles put in, going down two or three
rods into the gravelly soil below, I
think the water would have soaked
away and done no harm. A visitor
who was examining the location of
these drains without an outlet, the
other day, told me of little experience
of his, which is to the point.
They were draining cat swamp, or
hole without any outlet. At the deep
est part the drain was to be thirteen
feet deep The bottom of the swamp
was clay, and saucer-shaped. When
the water rose to a certain point it
soaked out or ran over the top of the
clay saucer. After they had cut into
the hill little ways, beginning at the
cat swamp, the soil was gravelly and
would not hold water. They had cut
through the rim of the saucer. The
gentleman said he insisted that it was
not necessary to 60 any, or at least not
much, farther. The saving in expense
would have been a good deal, as it was
necessary to curb the ditch all through
the deepest part. But his father and
brother thought best to put the drain
clear through and have an outlet. They
did so, and at first, when there was
big rush of water, little would run
clear through and come out of the out
let, but most of it soaked away before
farmer may, if he has few loads of
tiles on hand, oftentimes make money
faster than he does in the summer time
How many will take the hint? 1t
isn't cash in hand, to be sure, but it
will bring the cash in the end if it is fol-
lowed up by good farming, just as sure.
ly as the sun rises. And the invest
ment will bring a per cent. of profit
which you would not dare ask of your
neighbor for the use of money loaned to
him.
In extreme cases, on the writer's
farm, the principal has been paid back
in a single year, and still an interest
keeps rolling in annually that even a
broker would blush to charge. But lay
aside this sordid view of the matter,
and it wiz pay in looks and convenience
in the satisfaction to be derived from
making the waste places the most pro-
ductive and fertile on your iarm.-T
B. Terry, IN Country Gentleman.
Fencing Stra W Stacks.