Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1884-03-21
Farm Drainage-Does It Pay2

uolC OClotC VIC Cthil CSgilll toS WV VA
pense of the operation. After we get
a general idea of what it costs to drain
a given area, the increase of income
from that area needs to be computed
The question of profit and loss is ther
no difficult one to answer. A man
can always best find the outlay for any
work after it is finished, but if he Is
cautious he will have approximated tc
the cost before any money has been
expended. Just as farmer contem'
plating the building of a barn will get
the estimates of builders. so the person
who desires to drain his fields should
count the whole cost and act accord
ingly.
In the first place, let no one forget
for moment that draining is eXpen-
sive. From the first shoveful Of earth
removed until the last is returned there
is hard work, great deal of it, and
some of it needs to be skillful, and on
that account all the more costly. \
poorly made drain may be less expen,
sive in the making, but it is far more
so in the mending. A bad drain is a
drain upon ones patience as well as
purse, while it may never be thorough.
ly reliable as an outlet for surplus wa
ter.
The cost of draining may be classi-
fed under these heads: Digging the
trenches, grading the bottom tile and
tile LAYING. filling the trenches and
outlets and basis. The cost of dig
ging will depend upon whether with
hand labor entirely or partly with the
horses. If the soil is loamy one, free
from all large stones, the trenching of
an average depth will not be far from
fifty cents per rod. Shouli rock pre-
vail, as in the so called slate or shale.
in which the writer has worked with
pick nearly from the surface Of the
soil to the ditch bottom. the cost will
be much more. Ifthere is larger a
mount of the ditching done. and the
plow and ditching plow are freely used
the cost per rod may fall much below
the price namel. The grading is an
important part of the work and the
grading scoop needs to be in skillful
hands. Three men work we'll togeth-
in grading and their combined labor
for day should prepare 100 rods of
trenches for the tiles. We may cal!
this part five cents par rod. The cost
of the tile is not so easy to estimate as
it depends largely upon the distance
from the tile kiln. We may safely set
the expense of the tiles and the laying
of them at about twenty-five cents per
rod. The filling should not be over
ten cents, except in special cases
This makes total for the drain OF 80
cents per rod.
The cost Of draining any given area
will depend upon the number of rods
per acre. Fifty rods per acre is ample
for most wet soils, and at that number
the cost would not be far from SIS
allowing S. per acre for outlets and
tile basins We have a total of $50 per
acre for the work. Many farmers are
so situated that they can tile drain for
a much less figure, while others may
have t. pay more.
With $50 pr acre as the cost, can it
be shown that it is profitable invest
ment to sink so much money in the
soil j; in short, will it pay to drain? If
the money was deposited in a bank it
would draw from 4 to per cent. but
we will suppose it may bring s per
cent in some less safe place. This j.:
about equal to S. per acre for the un-
der drained land. That sum is the
actual annual expense of the drainage.
This money must come back in the in
creased crops grown upon the drained
area. To cover the investment there
would need to be from three to four
bushels of wheat added to the Weld.
twelve bushels of oats, ten Of corn and
potatoes and thousand pounds of hay
or its equivalent in increased pastur-
age. If it were necessary hosts Of in
stances might be cited to show that
the increase has often been equal to
the previous yield. Mr.. John johnson
the pioneer in tile drainage in Ameri-
ca, found that drain usually paid for
itself in two years and sometimes in a
single year. He has frequently had
forty bushels of wheat per acre upon
we'll drained soil when his neighbors
were reaping from ten to fifteen bush
els. The general introduction Of the
drainage into England has more than
doubled the wheat yield in that coun-
try. This is partly due to the fact that
very fertile lands before untitled have
become fine grain fields.
Drainage is most profitable when a
few rods, or few hundred, remove a
wet spot in the midst Of otherwise uni
formly arabic land. The wet area is
not only unfit for tillage, but its pre-
sence obstructs the culture Of the other
portions of the field. A miry place in
cultivated field is a far greater evil
than most farmers generally suppose.
There are many indirect gains which
are, nevertheless, important. The re-
moval Of the excess of water in early
Spring lengthens the farmers season
of labor. The Spring grains may be
sown earlier and under better condi-
tions. Waring says: "Drainin, makes
the farmer to great extent the mas
ter of his vocation. With a sloppy,
drenched, cold, uncongenial soil. which
ls saturated with every rain and takes
da, q and even weeks to hacome sniff
ciently dry to work upon, his efforts
are constantly baff1ed by unfavorable
weather at those times when it is most
important that his work proceed with
out interruption. Weeks are los. at
a season when they are all too short
for the work to be done. The ground
must be hurriedly and imperfectly pre-
pared and the seed put in too late Of
ten to rot in the over soaked soil. re-