The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-12-18
DlTCHlNG IN WINTER.
Work which VIII Certainly Pay the Farm
er Whose Land Needs Draining.

""iN ""lch MI certainly ray the Farm
er Whose Land Needs Draining.
Few farmers can get arouad with tho
other work-the regular farm work,
such as husking, blowing, getting out
manure, etc.-in time to do what ditch
ing they had planned to do before
freezing-up time. There is much bad
weather. in late autumn, the days are
short, and constantly getting shorter;
and there are innumerabe little putter-
ing jobs to be done about the stables,
yards, gardens, orchards and cellars.
No matter how big a margin of time the
farmer has figured for himself he sell
dom finds much spare time for works Of
improvement about the farm before
tfeez.ng-up time, unless he hires an in
creased amount of outside help.
Now great deal of ditching can be
done in early winter, after the ground
has frozen and snow covers the ground
TO such an extent that farmers have gem
orally piled away the tools for the win
ter l have dug considerable ditch af-
ter heavy freezing-up and with good
coat OF snow on lne ground.
A little preparation before freezing
occurs is necessary; however, if the
work would be eXpeditiously carried on.
In the first place the location of the pro-
posed bitches should be determined up
on, and the lines staked out Then
take a pillow and throw out two or three
burrows, blowing as deep as the beam
will allow by repeatedly running the
pillow deeper down along the same fur
row. If tile is to be laid, or almost any
underground drain, one good wide fur
row will give sufficient width. lffor an
open ditch wide at the top, il will be
necessary to throw burrows both ways,
and thus make an opening trench of
three feet width o" such a matter This
saves an immense amount of hand lat or
in any case, no matter when the ditch-
ing is to be dOnd, and in preparing Tor
winter ditching it is absolutely neces-
sary in order to save the expense and
tedious labor of cutting through the
frozen crust of top earth
10 keep the earth from freezing in the
bottom of this trench, fill it up with
strawy manure, and spread some along
on the surface each SIDE of the trench.
Hauling the manure or straw for this
purpose, is not labor lost by any means
aside from its use in the ditch. 1t can
be applied to the adjoining land along
The line of the ditch as cheaply as it
could be pitched from the manure cart
or from piles, so that part of the opera
ton should hardly be charged up to the
ditch Ill L., ~
tom of a trench of this kind does not
freeze very readily without any protec-
ton. A foot depth of straw manure IN
it will etlectualy prevent any freezing
underneath, where the after digging is
to be carried on.
Two men and team will lay ont half
a winters work in this way in very
short time. AS the hand digging pro-
crosses the filling is removed q few feet
at a time, throwing it well back, that it
may not be covered by the earth that is
to follow By uncovering but few
feet OF the trench Mt a me the work
may be carried on in the coolest weather
without any loss Of time in cutting
through frost
Where underdrains are being laid it
is good plan to keep the whole thing
well finished up TO where the digging Is
going on. That is, lay the drain,
whether it be board or tile, well up to
the d ggers, and fill in as fast as laid
and leveled
Men can he had almost for their
board in many sections of the country
during the winter months. 1t will GER
tainly pay the farmer whose land needs
draining to push the work at such a
time. The days may be short and
there may be lots of chores to be done,
but few rods of ditch done each day
viii count on next years crop, and for
all succeeding orops.-IE d. Boqnt0n,
en- Ohio Farmer.